Researchers say a massive earthquake and tsunami could soon
strike the Northwest US coast, killing more than 10,000 people, flooding entire
towns, and causing economic damages totaling $32 billion.
An alarming report published by the Oregon Seismic Safety
Policy Advisory Commission warns about the dire effects of the quake and claims
that it is imminent and could strike anytime. The report, which was compiled by
a group of more than 150 volunteer experts, was requested by the Oregon
legislature in order to adequately prepare for the looming disaster.
The last high magnitude earthquake in the region occurred in
the year 1700 in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The quake had a magnitude
between 8.7 and 9.2, and geologists in 2010 predicted that there is a 37
percent change of another such quake occurring within 50 years. The new report
claims that there is a 100 percent chance of a monster earthquake occurring in
the region – but scientists don’t know when.
"This earthquake will hit us again," Kent Yu, an
engineer and chairman of the commission, told lawmakers. "It's just a
matter of how soon."
Jay Wilson, vice chairman of the commission that put
together the report, told AP that “we’re well within the window for it to
happen again.”
With no time frame for the predicted earthquake, Oregonians
need to be constantly prepared for one. The report warns of death and
devastation ranging from British Columbia to Northern California, the worst of
which will strike Oregon.
"Oregonians as individuals are underprepared,"
Maree Wacker, chief executive officer of the American Red Cross of Oregon, told
AP.
An earthquake, together with the resulting tsunami, could
leave Oregonians without water, power, heat, telephone services, and in some
cases, gasoline. After a deadly earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011,
lawmakers grew concerned that a similar disaster could occur in the US. The
report says that geographically, Oregon and Japan are almost identical – but
that Japan was far more prepared than Oregon would be if it faced the same
fate.
The most recent report is not the first warning of an
imminent high-magnitude quake. In 2012, researchers at Oregon State University
published a study concluding that there is a 40 percent chance of a major earthquake
in the Coos Bay, Ore., region during the next 50 years.
The Northwest US is long overdue for an earthquake, and it’s
only a matter of time before the coast once again witnesses a quake with a
magnitude higher than 8.0.
“By the year 2060, if we have not had an earthquake, we will
have exceeded 85 percent of all the known intervals of earthquake recurrence in
10,000 years,” Jay Patton, co-author of the Oregon State University's research,
said in a press release. “The interval between earthquakes ranges from a few
decades to thousands of years. But we already have exceeded about three-fourths
of them.”
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