When:     7:00 pm, Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Where:    Batdorf & Bronson Coffee House, 516 Capitol Way South, Olympia, Washington. Phone 360.786.6717

Batdorf & Bronson has three locations in Olympia. Science Café meets in the downtown coffee house on Capitol Way.

On-street parking is available on Legion, Capitol Way, Columbia Street, and Water Street.
After 6 p.m., there is parking available at Heritage Bank on Columbia Street between 5th and Legion.
Our topic this month is The Magnitude-6.5 Puget Sound Earthquake of Fall 2011 …… That No One Will Feel.

We are expecting a slow-slip “earthquake” next fall in western Puget Sound. While it is likely to be about a magnitude 6.5 or maybe larger, no one will feel it since it will last about three weeks instead of 20 seconds like a regular earthquake.

Dr. Steve Malone will discuss the relatively new discovery made in the last 10 years of slow-slip earthquakes and accompanying tremors, and the latest research into what they are. Do they mean that the “big one” is coming sooner, or are they relieving stress to delay it? Cascadia happens to be one of the best laboratories in the world for studying this strange, repeating and predictable phenomenon, which is now being called EpisodicTremor and Slip (ETS).

Dr. Steve Malone is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth and Space Science at the University of Washington and the past Director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.