Although the damage from Wednesday's earthquake has been estimated at $2 billion, many in Seattle and western Washington feel rather lucky. The 6.8-magnitude quake has been linked to only one death (a heart attack), and the physical damage could have been considerably worse. Experts attribute the relatively moderate damage to the fact that the quake began 30 miles underground and to the retrofit...

While earthquakes in the state of California may garner most of the attention of the major media, the Pacific Northwest continues to be a region of intense seismic activity. Based at the University of Washington (within the Department of Earth and Space Sciences), and funded by the USGS and several other organizations, the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network provides a host of detailed materials...