The Seattle Fault cuts across Puget Sound and into Seattle itself.

The Seattle Fault is a geologic fault in the North American Plate that runs from the Issaquah Alps to Hood Canal in Washington. It has a depth of approximately 8 miles. It passes through Seattle, Washington, just south of Downtown and is believed to be capable of generating an earthquake of at least 7.0 on the Richter scale. The Seattle Fault therefore has the potential to cause extensive damage to the city, as much of Pioneer Square and the Industrial District is built on fill, as is the downtown waterfront, which is supported by the Alaskan Way Seawall. Retreived from http://earthquake. ... Puget Sound For the university in this region, see University of Puget Sound. ... City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ... Geologic faults, fault lines or simply faults are planar rock fractures, which show evidence of relative movement. ...  The North American plate, shown in brown The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Cherskiy Range in East Siberia. ... The Issaquah Alps are the highlands near Issaquah, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, including Cougar, Squak, Tiger, Taylor, and Rattlesnake Mountains, and Grand Ridge. ... Great Bend of Hood Canal from the southeast Hood Canal, is a fjord off Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington, with an average width of 1. ... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ... Seattle redirects here. ... Downtown Seattle, from top of Space Needle (looking south) Map of downtown Seattle Downtown is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. ... This article is about the natural seismic phenomenon. ... The Richter magnitude scale, or more correctly local magnitude ML scale, assigns a single number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake. ... Pioneer Square Pioneer Square is the neighborhood where Seattle, Washington was founded in 1853. ... The Industrial District is an industrial neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is bounded on the west by the Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay, beyond which lies West Seattle; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which lies Beacon Hill; on the north by S. King and S. Dearborn Streets... Fill may refer to: In civil engineering, a fill is an artificial ridge or dam of earth or gravel (fill dirt) constructed to support a prepared right-of-way such as a railroad or highway across a valley or depression. ... The Alaskan Way Seawall is a seawall which runs for 7,000 feet along the Elliott Bay waterfront southwest of downtown Seattle from Bay Street to S. Washington Street. ...

The Seattle Fault had not been responsible for an earthquake since the city's settlement in the 1850s. A major earthquake on the Seattle Fault is believed to have occurred 1100 years ago around 900 AD. On February 28, 2001, a state of emergency was declared after the Nisqually Earthquake, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, rocked the region. However, because of the shallowness of the Seattle Fault, an earthquake of the same magnitude could do up to eight times more damage.^[1] // Production of steel revolutionized by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Railroads begin to supplant canals in the United States as a primary means of transporting goods. ... The Nisqually earthquake occurred on February 28, 2001, and was one of the largest recorded earthquakes in Washington state history. ... This article is about the natural seismic phenomenon. ...

References

1. ^ Pinpointing devastation if Seattle Fault ruptures Seattle Times, February 20, 2005

External links

• Seattle Fault Zone (USGS)
• Effect of Structural Heterogeneity and Slip Distribution on Coseismic Vertical Displacement from Rupture on the Seattle Fault (USGS)