Well actually, it’s the Seattle fault-line that has attracted all the recent research vessels off of Beach Drive lately. Both the UW and NOAA have been busy documenting the increasing number of methane plumes in this area.
“Several more fissures and severe uplifting have occurred since inadvertently discovering large plumes of methane bubbles in 2011”, according to UW’s Professor of Seismology Roy Hinkley.
An early study suggested that the bubbles in Puget Sound might be coming up from this underlying subduction zone. In mapping these plumes, it became clear that large numbers that were aligned along geologic fault zones known as the Seattle, Tacoma and South Whidbey faults. But the greatest number of plumes occurred where the faults intersects, such as off Alki Point in West Seattle.
Most recently, research vessels using remotely operated vehicles have discovered dramatic uplifting formations along the southern edge of the Seattle Faultline which runs roughly from Emma Schmitz View Point to Restoration Point on Bainbridge Island.
A Seattle based spokesperson for NOAA, Natalie Schafer, said that NOAA is busy surveying seafloor depths and updating NOAA marine charts. “At the rate of subduction uplifting, we may see small islets formations cropping up between Blakely Rock and Alki Point in the next 20 years”.
The most recently updated NOAA chart now reveals the budding islands.
Depths shown in feet.
Move over, Blake Island! You’ll have company soon.
Scupper, reporting for BDB.
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