The Giant Awakens - Scientists Warn of Imminent Catastrophe

Scientists sound the alarm: the awakening of a giant fault after a three-century sleep threatens to flood the Pacific coast of North America. Water levels will rise by at least 2 meters.

As reported by TUT.AZ with reference to the authoritative scientific journal PNAS, a dormant tectonic shield lurks off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, maintaining an ominous silence for centuries. Now scientists have come to a troubling conclusion: its awakening could cause unprecedented chaos in territories from California to Canada.

This colossal fault, known as the Cascadia subduction zone, extends approximately 1,130 km - from Cape Mendocino in California to Vancouver Island in Canada. Despite centuries of calm, experts claim that its activation will trigger an earthquake of monstrous force, which will generate a tsunami up to 30 m high. And this, according to a new study, will be just the beginning of catastrophic events.

## The awakening of the fault will create chaos

A new study conducted by scientists from Virginia Tech has shown that the rupture of the Cascadia subduction zone will lead to a coastal subsidence of more than 1.9 m in just minutes. This will cause a rapid rise in sea level, which will catastrophically affect coastal settlements, megacities, and ecosystems in the region.

According to specialists' calculations, such a scenario will expand the federally designated 1% coastal floodplain (an area with an annual flooding probability of 1 in 100) by an area of 13.5 to 44.8 sq.km. The research group emphasizes that this will have enormous long-term consequences for the region, where there is already a significant risk of flooding.

Tina Dura, co-author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the College of Science, notes: "The expansion of the coastal floodplain after an earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone has never been quantitatively assessed before. The consequences for land use could significantly increase the recovery time for the region after a disaster."

## The giant fault will cause an earthquake of unprecedented force

The Cascadia subduction zone is the largest geological fault line running through northern California, Oregon, Washington, and reaching the south of British Columbia. According to researchers, this place is the arena of grand tectonic collisions.

Geologists explain that subduction zones form where one tectonic plate slides under another. In the case of Cascadia, the Juan de Fuca plate (a relatively small oceanic plate) slides under the massive North American plate. This process creates colossal tension that accumulates over decades and centuries, eventually to be released in the form of a mega-earthquake.

## The mega-earthquake will create unprecedented chaos

The Cascadia subduction zone is capable of generating earthquak