Earthquake swarm alerts scientists
Seattle
A swarm of undersea earthquakes off the Pacific Northwest coast has scientists from the University of Washington scrambling in hopes of glimpsing two tectonic plates pulling apart.
The 209-foot RV Thomas G. Thompson, a research ship from the university, headed for the Endeavor Hot Vents over the weekend after seismic equipment had detected nearly 3,800 small quakes as of late Thursday.
Among those on the ship are scientists from Oregon State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Robert P. Dziak, an oceanographer at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Ore.
“The speculation is it might be a volcanic eruption or a magma event on the ridge,” Garry Rogers, a seismologist with the Geological Survey of Canada in Vancouver, B.C., said Sunday.
“Thousands of earthquakes occurring over a few days, it’s a tremendous amount of energy, but it’s way offshore,” Rogers said. “They are too far to be felt, so as far as we know there is no threat.”
The swarm included a 4.1 magnitude quake at 5:01 a.m. Sunday, “just to remind us it’s a very active earthquake area,” he said.
The vents are in a 6.2-mile segment of the Northern Juan de Fuca Ridge beneath about 7,425 feet of water northwest of the mouth of the Columbia River and about 165 miles off southern Vancouver Island.
The ridge, an area where the Juan de Fuca and Pacific plates of Earth’s crust are moving apart, experiences intense occasional bursts of activity between periods of quiet, Rogers said.
Experts agree the subduction zone where the Pacific Plate plunges beneath the Juan de Fuca plate will at some point generate a monster earthquake that could devastate much of the Pacific Northwest coast.
One of the biggest problems in trying to predict when the next big one will hit is not knowing how fast the two plates are moving, and that is a key reason the research vessel was dispatched, Rogers said.
“Is it millimeters over many years? Is it all of a sudden centimeters or even meters in the period of a few minutes or seconds during these earthquake swarms? We really don’t know that,” he said.
What does seem clear is that the latest quake swarm is unlikely to signal a jolt big enough to generate a tsunami, Rogers said.
“We don’t feel there is a tsunami threat, even though there is vertical motion, in that we have never seen a tsunami generated from a midocean ridge,” he said.
Scientists start work at Indian artifact site
Seattle Archaeologists are beginning work on a site along the Duwamish River in Tukwila where construction has already uncovered hundreds of Indian artifacts.
No human remains have been found at the site that workers hope to clear for Sound Transit’s planned light rail crossing.
The archaeological work is not expected to delay construction or completion of Sound Transit’s $2.4 billion light-rail line from downtown Seattle to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The initial 14-mile line is planned to end at Tukwila. A 1.7-mile extension to the airport is to be finished in December 2009.
The state Transportation Department walked away from a drydock project in Port Angeles after spending $58 million dollars after Indian remains were found with artifacts.
Electrical box started furniture store fire
Aberdeen, Wash. A faulty electrical junction box caused the three-alarm fire that gutted a landmark downtown furniture store, authorities said Monday.
The fire apparently started at a junction box at Selmer’s furniture store and spread to a suspended ceiling, which began to fall onto furniture on the store’s main floor, Fire Chief Dave Calberg said. No one was injured in the Friday morning blaze.
Insurance investigators were at the scene Monday to assess damages.
Man pleads innocent in Seattle homicide
Seattle A 22-year-old man accused of killing a man and trying to burn his body in his sports car in Seattle has pleaded innocent to a first-degree murder charge.
At his court appearance Monday, Michael Saga Maiava was ordered held with bail set at $5 million.
Maiava was already in jail on a robbery charge last week when he was charged with murder.
The body of Kevin Shaw, 44, was found wrapped in gasoline-soaked sheets and garbage bags last October in his Porsche on a Seattle street.
Shaw’s hands and feet were bound and he was beaten so severely his back was broken. Prosecutors have not disclosed the motive but they say the two men had talked on a chat line.
Shaw ran an executive-recruiting service, invested in a home-building business and had worked for several accounting firms.
CdA ‘View’ segment moved to Thursday
A segment on a morning talk show featuring Coeur d’Alene as one of the nation’s top five “Up and Coming Neighborhoods” was postponed until Thursday. “The View” program was originally scheduled to air at 10 a.m. Monday on KXLY, Channel 4.
Man reportedly shot in domestic dispute
An apparent domestic dispute landed a 26-year-old Kendrick, Idaho, man in St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston on Monday with a gunshot to his leg.
Latah County Sheriff’s Detective Jennifer McFarland said deputies responded just after midnight to a home about three miles northwest of Kendrick off state Highway 99. Interviews led deputies to believe the shooting happened several hours earlier during an argument between the man and his 25-year-old wife. McFarland declined to identify the couple until an investigation is complete.The man was treated and released. No arrests were made.
300 expected to dance at NIC powwow
About 300 dancers are expected to participate in the Gathering Place Powwow this month at North Idaho College.
North Idaho College sits on land that was the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s winter home. The site was called “Yap-Keehn-Um,” a Coeur d’Alene term that means “the gathering place.”
This year’s powwow, March 18-19, will include Native American food, arts and crafts, drum circles and dancers. All events are free, open to the public and will be held at Christianson Gymnasium at NIC’s main campus in Coeur d’Alene.
The powwow begins with the grand entry at 7 p.m. March 18. Grand entry on March 19 is scheduled for 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.