This is how the next Cascadia megaquake will devastate the Pacific Northwest.
This computer simulation by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is based on the data from the latest M9.2 megaquake in the region on January 26, 1700.
The tsunami generated by the incredibly strong earthquake reached Japan within 9 hours. OMG.
The animation shows how the tsunami waves released by the powerful quake start detroying the west coast of North America before spreading across the ocean.
Several experts claim that an event of this kind takes place approximately every 300-600 years, and that a similar tremor can leave thousands of deaths and displaced persons.
A tremor similar in power than that of 1700 would be like five or six katrinas at the same time from California to Canada.
ADVICE ON HOW TO SURVIVE A PACIFIC NORTHWEST EARTHQUAKE
Last year, scientists outlined their alarmingly unhelpful tips on how to survive the earthquake that will hit the Pacific Northwest.
The killer quake along Cascadia, a fault line which runs from Cape Mendocino, California, to Vancouver Island, Canada, is 72 years overdue, according to peer-reviewed studies.
The ‘Big One’ will hit when Juan de Fuca, a 700-mile chunk of the Pacific Ocean, slides under Canada and America, causing the entire coastal region to sink at least six feet.
When – not if – it arrives, it is unlikely the people of coastal Oregon, Washington and California will be able to escape.
But if they want to try, there are a few tips they should keep in mind: Run, don’t drive, to higher ground, says Kevin Cupples, the city planner for the town of Seaside, Oregon, in an interview with the New Yorker.
The force of the quake will cause liquefaction, when solid ground acts like liquid, across vast swathes of the porous region.
In the areas that aren’t ‘liquefied’, the highways will likely be crumpled by landslides, with 30,000 avalanches set to hit Seattle alone.
Citizens will have a 20-minute interval to climb to the highest altitude possible before the full force of the tsunami hits, scientists predict.
Their alert will be when dogs start barking.
The first sign the quake is coming will be a set of compressional waves, only audible by dogs.
Then there will be the quake, then 20 minutes later, the tsunami.
Geographers estimate that many could survive just by walking – however, they need to be going at least 3.5mph.
If everyone ups their average speed from 2.5mph to 3.5mph, the death toll drops to 15,970.
About 70 per cent of them would be in Washington, nearly 30 per cent in Oregon and only 4 per cent in California.
And there is no point being a hero. ‘When that tsunami is coming, you run,’ Jay Wilson, the chair of the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission, tells the New Yorker. ‘You protect yourself, you don’t turn around, you don’t go back to save anybody. You run for your life.’
The only other safety measure is to relocate away from the Pacific north west.
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