Subduction Zone Science Meetings

The 2025 USGS Subduction Zone Science Meeting and the 2nd CRESCENT Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA.

Published on January 13, 2025 by Fabian Kutschera

meeting cascadia subduction

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The year 2025 started with two subduction-related science meetings in Seattle, Washington State. From January 8–9, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hosted a Subduction Zone Science Meeting. Adjacent to the USGS meeting, CRESCENT (Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center) held their 1-day Annual Meeting.

The USGS Meeting was organized around five themes: (1) Community-Focused Subduction Zone Science, (2) Cascading Hazards and Impacts, (3) Structure and Deformation in Subduction Zones, (4) Earthquake Recurrence and Processes, and (5) Understanding, Monitoring, and Communicating Volcanic Hazards. Multiple excellent invited talks were given, some of which mentioned below.

  • Audrey Dunham addressed the cascading impacts of megathrust earthquakes based on the example of the Cascadia subduction zone and provided insights from 3D ground motion simulations
  • Tina Dura spoke about “Earthquake-Driven Subsidence and Sea-Level Rise: Compound Flooding Hazards Along the Cascadia Subduction Zone”
  • Jon Perkins changed perspective and covered “Long-term Uplift, Differential Weathering, and Impacts on Landslide Style and Hazard in Puerto Rico”
  • Brandon Schmandt did a step toward more integrative models and spoke about seismically imaging continental magmatic systems
  • Alex Iezzi presented on “Mitigating Volcanic Hazards with the Rainier Lahar Detection System”
  • Cheryl Cameron on “Alaska Volcano Observatory: Trusted Volcano Hazard Communication Leveraging Multi-Agency Relationships”
  • Jenny Riker on “The USGS–USAID Partnership: Using Subduction Zone Science to Save Lives, Alleviate Suffering, and Reduce the Impacts of Disasters”
  • Nathan Wood on “Population Exposure and Evacuation Potential to Tsunamis Created by Subduction Zone Earthquakes”
  • Amina Meselhe on “Connectivity and Coastal Infrastructure Performance Following a CSZ Multi-Hazard Event”
  • Jenna Tilt on “Todos Preparados: Co-producing a Culturally Responsive Emergency Preparedness for Latino/a Coastal Communities”
  • Jessica DePaolis on “Using Diatoms to Uncover a History of Combined Subduction Zone and Splay Fault Ruptures in South-Central Alaska”
  • Eric Lindsey emphasized the need for a better distinction (see also The science of planning for future tsunamis) between kinematic coupling (= slip rate deficit) and seismic coupling (= frictional locking) in his talk “A Stress-Free Way to Think About Megathrusts: Locking, Coupling and Future Earthquake Potential”
  • Nathan Miller presented on “New Seismic Velocity Models for Offshore Cascadia from the CASIE21 Experiment”
  • Brian Sherrod on “Recurrence of Large Upper-Plate Earthquakes in the Salish Lowland, Washington State”
  • James Biemiller on “Structural Controls on Splay Faulting in Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquakes” suggesting that the splay fault geometry controls rupture tendency, with greater slip on (1) gently-dipping splays and (2) seaward-vergent splays
  • Drake Singleton on “Lakes as Natural Seismographs of Subduction Zone Seismicity”

The CRESCENT Annual Meeting aimed to

  1. Foster collaboration between our working groups and special interest groups;
  2. Bridge gaps, and increase communication among subduction zone research groups; and
  3. Identify and encourage synergistic collaborative activities between CRESCENT and the USGS.

Here, science accomplishments of the first CRESCENT year were reviewed and plans for the next year developed through a range of working group presentations and breakout discussions. In addition, science frontier talks proved the success and importance of Cascadia-related research, such as:

  • “Regional-scale crustal architecture of the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone revealed from active source seismic studies: implications for along-strike structural segmentation within the seismogenic zone” presented by Suzanne Carbotte
  • “Ferndale, Petrolia, and Cape Mendocino, oh my! Lessons and Open Questions from Southern Cascadia” presented by Kathryn Materna
  • “Emerging techniques for precisely dating trees killed in Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes” presented by Bryan Black

A huge thanks to the CRESCENT staff for the organization, and of course all participants of both the USGS and CRESCENT meetings. This concludes this blog post for now. No liability is taken for the accuracy, completeness or timeliness.