Yesterday's M9.1 Japan earthquake will affect the USA in many ways, because of our close economic and cultural ties. These thoughts are confined to the scientific relevance.
The Japan earthquake has a magnitude similar to the magnitude of the 1700 Cascadia subduction zone earthquake. The following screen captures from Google Earth are on the same scale, and indicate that the rupture length in Japan is apparently a little smaller than the full length of the Cascadia subduction zone. But the scales are similar. The ground motions recorded in Japan are thus very relevant to predicting ground motions to result from the next Cascadia earthquake. The ground motions from this earthquake are very well recorded by the excellent Japanese network. They will become the reference for potential ground motions from future Cascadia earthquakes.
First posted March 12, 2011. Updated March 29, 2011.
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