The west coast of North America is seismically active, forming part of the “Ring of Fire” that bounds the Pacific Ocean. One of the sources of recent earthquakes is the Mendocino Fracture Zone or the Mendocino transform fault, located off Cape Mendocino in Northern California. This zone, which extends approximately 190 kilometers into the eastern Pacific, was the source of the September 1, 1994, earthquake estimated at between 6.8 and 7.2 in magnitude.