‘Doomsday’ 100-foot mega tsunami could wipe out US West Coast at any moment

Scientists are warning that a 100-foot, Doomsday-style tsunami is primed to hit the US West Coast at any moment.

Yet bizarrely, experts say that the sooner the tsunami hits the better despite thousands of deaths being predicted in their models.

The natural disaster threat stems from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 700-mile fault line from northern California to British Columbia, which has lain dormant for 300 years.

The zone is due for a major earthquake, scientists say, and any resulting tsunami will be more devastating if sea levels continue to rise.

‘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.’

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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