
This LiDAR image (acquired in 2006 by the USGS) shows five paleoseismic study sites (red dots with block perimeters) and three Holocene faults (solid red lines) inferred from the data.
Now add to that three more potentially dangerous faults in the Bellingham Basin, a tectonically active area along the coast of Washington, near the Canadian border.
A team of researchers has discovered active tectonic faults in this region nearly 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of any previously known faults.
"We've known for a long time that the whole Pacific Northwest region is contracting very slowly north-to-south, at the rate of a few millimeters per year," said Richard Blakely, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., who was part of the study.
"It doesn't sound like very much, but when you concentrate that contraction on specific faults, they can become rather dangerous."










