Peculiar Leak in Pacific Ocean Floor Along Cascadia Fault Line Might Trigger Powerful Earthquake

On the Pacific Ocean floor, near the Cascadia fault line, a strange leak of a chemically unique liquid was discovered. According to experts, this leak could set off a strong earthquake.

A Peculiar Leak in the Pacific Ocean Floor

Researchers have discovered an odd leak in the Pacific Ocean's subsurface that could one day trigger a powerful earthquake. According to experts, the leak, which was discovered off the Pacific coasts of the United States and Canada, has never been seen before.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), a vast fault line that stretches from Canada's Vancouver Island to Northern California, contains a seep known as Pythia's Oasis.

A spring with low salinity, high temperature, and mineral-rich water is known as Pythia's Oasis, and it is located off the coast of Oregon. Brendan Philip, who was monitoring the natural methane bubble streams that emerge from the seafloor at the edge of the continental shelf, found this location in 2015.

Recently, thousands of these bubble streams along the Washington-Oregon border were found, according to the University of Washington.

Cascadia Fault Line

There is a probability that this fluid is controlling pressure between the oceanic and continental plates at the CSZ, where two plates collide. At the fault, where temperatures below are between 300 and 500 degrees Fahrenheit, water is erupting "like a firehose." This explains why the water that is splashing up from the ocean floor 50 miles off the coast of Newport, Oregon, is warmer.

Regardless, if more water continues to leak, reports claim that this may be causing more pressure at the fault lines and stressing the plates. Then, if the tension rises and the plates begin to move, an earthquake could happen.

Methane bubbles were seen rising from a mile under the ocean. According to oceanographer Evan Solomon of the University of Washington, when the fluid pressure is high, it's as if the air is turned on, reducing friction and allowing the two plates to slip. The two plates will lock if the fluid pressure is lower. At that point, stress may accumulate.

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Possible Powerful Earthquake

Like lubricant that is leaking, fluid is released from the fault zone. Less lubricant means that stress can build up and cause a damaging earthquake, which is troubling for earthquake hazards.

According to the study's authors, Pythia's Oasis might not be the only seep of its kind in the area around the CSZ. This intrigues seismologists.

According to co-author and oceanography professor Deborah Kelley, Pythias Oasis offers a unique window into processes taking place deep beneath the ocean's surface, and its chemistry suggests that this fluid originates close to the plate boundary. This suggests that the nearby faults control fluid pressure and the behavior of megathrust slip along the central Cascadia Subduction Zone, according to Kelley.

Solomon said that when they explored, what the team observed was not only methane bubbles, but water flowing out of the ocean floor like a firehose. This is how they found the underground water.

The researcher has never seen such a phenomenon before, and as far as he is aware, no one else has either. According to reports, the seep may be a sign of a significant earthquake off the coast of North America, WION reports.

The study by Solomon, Kelley, and several other colleagues, describing this phenomenon was recently published in the journal Science Advances.