Researchers at the University of Washington have made a crucial discovery to help them better understand earthquake zones off the West Coast.

The findings give them more insight into a part of the country that could produce a big earthquake. 

"It provides a more fuller(sic) understanding of the fundamentals, the foundational understanding of how subduction zones work," said UW Assistant Professor Evan Solomon.

Solomon and other researchers are studying subduction zones – the areas underwater that produce earthquakes when tectonic plates collide. 

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The research team discovered warm liquid coming from the seafloor off the coast of Oregon, which gives them a better idea of how tectonic plates lock into place between large earthquakes.

"They’re like messengers from the deep," Solomon said. "They’re providing us a pretty well intact, pristine sample, of what the fluids are like in the plate boundary at these depths."

The discovery happened along the Cascadia Subduction Zone – a fault line more than 600 miles long that stretches from southern British Columbia to northern California.

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Solomon hopes the research will help improve earthquake forecasting down the line.

"This new finding does provide new information for our models of how subduction zones work," Solomon said. "And those models eventually can be potentially used for forecasting of earthquakes." 

The Pacific Coast is approximately 100 miles from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and that means coastal towns would quickly feel the impact from an earthquake. 

"As soon as the shaking stops, we have about anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to get to high ground before the first tsunami waves will hit," said Scott Cameron, a geologist from Seabrook, Washington.

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Coastal towns pay close attention to earthquake threats and need the most up-to-date information to prepare.

"The key is to communicate what we do know," Cameron said. "Right now, we have models and an understanding based on the best available science we have. And we need to make sure that gets out to the public."

There is a 15% chance that a major earthquake will take place in the Cascadia Subduction Zone over the next 50 years. If it happens, experts believe it could be comparable to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that killed nearly 20,000 people.

FIRST ON FOX: California Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to endorse the cash payments – which could reach as high as $1.2 million for a single recipient – recommended by his reparations task force, telling Fox News Digital that dealing with the legacy of slavery "is about much more than cash payments." 

"The Reparations Task Force’s independent findings and recommendations are a milestone in our bipartisan effort to advance justice and promote healing. This has been an important process, and we should continue to work as a nation to reconcile our original sin of slavery and understand how that history has shaped our country," Newsom said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

While the Democratic governor applauded the task force's work, he declined to endorse any specific recommendations, though he pledged to continue to "advance systemic changes that ensure an inclusive and equitable future for all Californians." 

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"Dealing with that legacy is about much more than cash payments. Many of the recommendations put forward by the Task Force are critical action items we’ve already been hard at work addressing: breaking down barriers to vote, bolstering resources to address hate, enacting sweeping law enforcement and justice reforms to build trust and safety, strengthening economic mobility — all while investing billions to root out disparities and improve equity in housing, education, healthcare, and well beyond. This work must continue," he said. 

"Following the Task Force’s submission of its final report this summer, I look forward to a continued partnership with the Legislature to advance systemic changes that ensure an inclusive and equitable future for all Californians." 

The task force's recommendation breaks payments down by types of historical discrimination. For instance, Black residents affected by redlining by banks would receive $3,366 for each year they lived in California from the early 1930s to the late 1970s, amounting to up to $148,099.

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Similarly, Black residents could receive roughly $2,352 in compensation for over-policing and mass incarceration for each year they lived in California between 1970 and 2020. Those payments could amount to $115,260. For a Black Californian who checks enough boxes, the total payout could reach $1.2 million. 

The task force’s final recommendations will soon be submitted to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to Newsom's desk to be signed into law.

"This has been a fool’s errand from the start," James Gallagher, California Assembly Republican Leader, previously told Fox News Digital. 

"Democrats have promised the world with this reparations task force, and now the massive taxpayer bill is coming due. Newsom has painted himself into a corner, and he’ll have to choose between signing off on a ridiculous policy that will bankrupt the state or admitting once and for all that this task force was nothing more than a political stunt."

Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report