Experts have warned that a 1,000 ft ‘mega tsunami’ could devastate three regions of the US.
Alaska, Hawaii and the West Coast of mainland US are under threat for how close they are to the danger zone.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences released a study that shared that a devastating earthquake could erupt on the Cascadia subduction zone – an area that goes from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in California.
Experts have warned an earthquake combined with the rising sea levels could trigger a “mega tsunami” that would impact locals in northern California, northern Oregon and south Washington the most.
They also revealed that the fault line had a 15% chance of causing an earthquake, that could reach a level 8.0 or higher in the next 50 years.
Tina Dura, lead author of the study and assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Geosciences said: “The expansion of the coastal floodplain following a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake has not been previously quantified, and the impacts to land use could significantly increase the timeline to recovery,”
“Cascadia is a unique place. It’s not super heavily populated, but most estuaries have a community in them, and they’re all right in the zone of subsidence,” Dura said. “This is honestly where I think the subsidence could have bigger impacts than it has during other recent large earthquakes around the world.”
Scary!