10-07-2025
'Doomsday' 100-foot mega tsunami likely to hit the US at any moment
Scientists are warning that a 100-foot, Doomsday-style mega tsunami is primed to hit the US West Coast at any moment – and likely within 50 years.
On top of that, experts say that the sooner the tsunami hits, the better.
The natural disaster threat stems from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which is a nearly 700-mile fault line from northern California to British Columbia, that has not had much movement in 300 years.
That means that the zone is due for a major earthquake, and its effects are predicted to be worse as time goes on.
'By 2100, when climate-driven sea-level rise will compound the hazard, a great earthquake could expand floodplains… more than tripling the flooding exposure of residents, structures, and roads under the high subsidence scenario compared to the 2023 floodplain,' states a recent article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
There is a 37% chance of a quake in the Pacific Northwest happening in the next half-century, and one is almost guaranteed to hit by 2100, according to the study published in April.
'This is going to be a very catastrophic event for the US, for sure,' the study's lead author, Tina Dura, told BBC Science Focus.
'The tsunami is going to come in, and it's going to be devastating.'
A quake of magnitude 8.0 to 9.0 could create a 100-foot tsunami capable of crushing eight feet of the coastline and wiping out much of the West Coast.
'After the tsunami comes and eventually recedes, the land is going to persist at lower levels,' Dura said.
'That floodplain footprint is going to be altered for decades or even centuries.' More Trending
Such a quake could cause 5,800 deaths, and the resulting tsunami could claim another 8,000 lives, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the nation's agency helping people before, during and after disasters.
The coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington, up to northern Vancouver Island in Canada, are under the threat.
The last massive earthquake, magnitude 9.0, hit in January 1700 and spurred a tsunami that took out the village of Pachena Bay in British Columbia.
'This study underscores the need to consider combined earthquake and climate impacts in planning for coastal resilience at the Cascadia subduction zone and globally,' states the article.
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