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Article: STRONG IT WAS, BUT DEPTH TEMPERED IT LUCKY IT WASN'T A SHALLOW EARTHQUAKE.(News)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- March 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It could have been worse.
Yesterday's magnitude 6.8 earthquake took place 30 miles underground. If it had been shallower, scientists said, damage could have been significantly greater.
The earthquake, centered about 11 miles north of Olympia, occurred where the Juan de Fuca plate grinds against the North American continental plate at the speed of fingernails growing.
While that may not sound powerful, the force of this slow-motion collision is what gives this region its main features - jagged mountain ranges, volcanoes and earthquakes.
"We're lucky this wasn't a shallow quake," said Tony Qamar, a seismologist at the University of ...