PORT HADLOCK — What would happen if a 9.0-magnitude or larger earthquake hit the North Olympic Peninsula?
Michael Machette — a practicing earthquake geologist and the owner of Paleo Seis Surveys LLC, a geologic consulting firm based in Port Townsend — will talk about the earth science behind a “Really Big One” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Jefferson County Library, 620 Cedar Ave.
Admission is free. Seating will be limited, so visitors are encouraged to arrive early.
Machette will discuss the possible effects — including tsunamis — of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault that extends from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in California.
Machette will reveal areas particularly susceptible to shaking and tsunamis and what Quimper Peninsula businesses and residents might experience after a really big earthquake.
Paleo Seis Surveys LLC identifies geologic hazards at critical facilities such as nuclear power plants, dams and pipelines.
Machette earned a bachelor’s in geology from San Jose State University in 1972 and a master’s in quaternary geology from the University of Colorado in 1975.
From 1972 to 2008, he worked as a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He is the former chief of the USGS’s Quaternary fault and fold database for the USA, as well as chairman of the World Map of Active Faults for the Western Hemisphere.
After retiring to Port Townsend in 2008, Machette built an earthquake-resistant house in Kala Point.
He is the treasurer and a board member of the Jefferson Land Trust and chairman of its Geology Group (www.QuimperGeology.org), an educational outreach group.
For more information about this program, visit www.jclibrary.info or call 360-385-6544.
