The earthquake caused a tsunami that struck the coast of Japan, and may also be linked to the Bonneville slide.
Evidence of the earthquake
Evidence supporting the occurrence of the 1700 earthquake has been gathered into the 2005 book The Orphan Tsunami of 1700, by geologist Brian Atwater and others.
The evidence suggests that it took place at about 9:00 PM on January 26, 1700 (NS). Although there were no written records in the region at the time, the earthquake's precise time is nevertheless known from Japanese records of a tsunami that has not been tied to any other Pacific Rim earthquake. The most important clue linking the tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in the Pacific Northwest comes from studies of tree rings (dendrochronology) which show that red cedar trees killed by lowering of coastal forests into the tidal zone by the earthquake have outermost growth rings that formed in 1699, the last growing season before the tsunami. Oral traditions describing a large quake also exist among the region's inhabitants, although these do not specify the date.
Who knew that the Indians living in the Pac NW had seismographs, and were recording Richter levels, in 1700! Wow!
Oh! Oh! Oh! I’m so scared. Will this occur before the killer bees, the meteorites, global warming, global pandemics, comets, solar flares, supernovas, magnetic pole shifts, nuclear annilation, famines, floods, pestilences, monsters, killer pythons, etc. get us?