the SWCC. Does the SHZ extend north? Though the Olympia Structure (a suspected fault) runs towards the SHZ, and delineates the northern edge of an exposed section of the Crescent Formation, it appears to be an upper crustal fold, part of a pattern of folding that extends southeast to cross the Columbia River near The Dalles, and unrelated to the mid and lower crustal SHZ. It has been speculated that the SHZ might extend under the Kitsap Peninsula (central Puget Sound), possibly involved with a section of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate that is suspected of being stuck. The implications of this are not only "the possibility of a moderate to large crustal earthquake along the SHZ", but that the tectonics under Puget Sound are more complicated than yet understood, and may involve differences in the regional stress patterns not reflected in current earthquake hazard assessments. Deeper structure Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier are located where their associated fault zones make a bend (see map, above).(Mt. Rainier is offset because the faults are deep and the conduits do not rise quite vertically.) These bends are located where they intercept a "subtle geological structure" of "possible fundamental importance", a NNE striking zone (line "A" on the map) of various faults (including the Tokul Creek Fault NNE of Snoqualmie) and early-Miocene (about 24 Ma) volcanic vents and intrusive bodies (plutons and batholiths) extending from Portland to Glacier Peak; it also marks the change in regional fault orientation noted above. This MSH-MR-GP lineament is believed to reflect a "long-lived deep-seated lithospheric flaw that has exerted major control on transfer of magma to the upper crust of southern Washington for approximately the last 25 [million years]"; it has been attributed to the geometry of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. A parallel line ("B") about 15 miles (25 kilometers) to the west corresponds to the western limit of a zone of seismicity stretching from the WRZ to southwest of Portland. Curiously, the extension of line "B" north of the OWL is approximately the eastern limit of Puget Sound seismicity, the rest of southwestern Washington and the North Cascades being relatively aseismic (see the seismicity map, above). This line may also mark the northwestern boundary of the SWCC. North of the RMFZ it follows a topographical lineament that can be traced to Rockport (on Hwy. 20); it includes the Cherry Creek Fault Zone