iamlucky13 t1_j8prghz wrote
Reply to comment by SCROTOCTUS in Was Western Washington’s infrastructure the reason the Nisqually quake had no direct fatalities? by yungcarwashy
Because of the distance of the Cascadia Subduction Zone from Seattle, the local shaking will be more comparable to a magnitude 7 quake directly beneath Seattle. The biggest concerns for this quake scenario are the regional scale of the effects, and especially the dangers on the coast of the tsunami that will likely accompany it.
Here are the USGS predicted intensity maps showing this, as well as the 2001 Nisqually quake and the 2023 Turkey quake for comparison:
Magnitude 9.3 Cascadia Subduction Zone - Predicted - Modified Mercalli Intensity in Seattle 7 to 7.5
Magnitude 7.2 Seattle Fault Zone - Predicted - Modified Mercalli Intensity in Seattle 8 to 8.5
Magnitude 6.8 2001 Nisqually Quake - Modified Mercalli Intensity in Olympia: 6.5 to 6.8
Magnitude 7.8 Turkey 2003 Quake - Modified Mercalli Intensity: Over 9 in the worst affected areas
With that said, construction methods and quality matter a lot. The shaking in the Gaziantep, where a historically significant castle received major damage that has been shown widely in the news, the Mercalli Intensity is estimated at 6.7 - similar to what Olympia experienced in 2001.
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