Vol. 2 No. 4: Special Issue: the Cascadia Subduction Zone

The Cascadia Subduction Zone: Grand Challenges and Research Frontiers

Subduction zones generate the world’s largest earthquakes. Their strong shaking and related cascading hazards such as tsunamis, landslides, liquefaction, fire, etc., make them the source of some of the most devastating natural hazards. The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), spanning three states in the U.S. and British Columbia in Canada, is such a hazardous system and at the same time represents one of the world’s best natural earthquake laboratories. While the Cascadia megathrust is seismically quiet compared to many other subduction zones, fundamental discoveries on phenomena including slow slip and tremor have shown it to be a hub of tectonic activity. Moreover, the region hosts one of the most comprehensive geologic records of past great earthquakes. Research involving the CSZ has yielded some of the most intriguing recent advances in the physics and impacts of earthquakes, and, fresh ideas and future scientific endeavors are required to foster and accelerate this progress.

Production Editors:  Alice-Agnes Gabriel and Christie Rowe

Guest Editors: 
Brendan Crowell (geodesy)
Colin Amos (tectonic and EQ geology)
Isabel Hong (paleoseismology)
Jason Padgett (paleoseismology)
Pieter-Ewald Share (high-res geophysical structural imaging)
Emilie Hooft (shoreline crossing seismics)
Harold Tobin (marine geology, fluids, faults)

Cover caption: One of the Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array (PANGA) sites atop Mt. Olympus, Washington. Photo credit: Harold Tobin (University of Washington/Pacific Northwest Seismic Network).