ResilienceNew USGS plan contributes to making subduction zone areas more resilient

Published 29 June 2017

Subduction zone events pose significant threats to lives, property, economic vitality, cultural and natural resources and quality of life. The tremendous magnitudes of these events are unique to subduction zones, and they can have cascading consequences that reverberate around the globe. USGS has developed a blueprint for advancing science and resilience from subduction zone hazards.

Subduction zone events pose significant threats to lives, property, economic vitality, cultural and natural resources and quality of life. The tremendous magnitudes of these events are unique to subduction zones, and they can have cascading consequences that reverberate around the globe.

The planet we live on is constantly shifting beneath our feet.  Creeping along at speeds undetectable to you and me, Earth’s massive tectonic plates are continually on the move, and nowhere is our home planet more geologically active than where these plates converge. For example, the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, northern California, the commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands and the territories of American Samoa and Guam are all situated where two tectonic plates collide, putting them at risk from the world’s largest earthquakes, powerful tsunamis, explosive volcanoes and massive landslides on land and offshore. Scientifically speaking, these areas are called “subduction zones.”

USGS says that it has developed a blueprint for advancing science and resilience from subduction zone hazards entitled Reducing Risk Where Tectonic Plates Collide – A Plan to Advance Subduction Zone Science. The new plan leverages scientific and technologic developments, improves hazard assessments, addresses stakeholder needs and maximizes capabilities through partnerships to reduce the risks posed by subduction zone events. The resulting products will inform decisions and policies that can make communities and critical infrastructure in these areas less vulnerable to subduction zone hazards.

The Plan focuses on three themes: (1) advancing observations and models of subduction zone processes, (2) quantifying natural hazards and risk; and (3) forecasting and situational awareness. For each of these themes, the plan describes USGS accomplishments and current capabilities, discusses specific knowledge and capability gaps, describes scientific frontiers, and summarizes key questions, needed research, required investments and resulting products.

Science to meet stakeholder needs
The new USGS plan was developed to identify the scientific advances needed by land-use planners, engineers, policy-makers, emergency managers and responders, business owners, insurance providers, the media and the public. The plan describes the scientific paths to deliver products and guide actions that would help citizens prepare for, react to and recover from subduction-zone events. These paths include:

Develop high-resolution hazard and risk assessments, allowing land-use planners, businesses and homeowners to make targeted and cost-effective decisions in advance of disaster striking, to minimize potential losses (e.g. by situating homes and critical infrastructure away from sites with the most vulnerable conditions).