Northwest at risk of megaquake like one in Chile

Such a quake would also send powerful tsunami waves rushing to shore in minutes. While big cities such as Portland and Seattle would be protected from severe flooding, low-lying seaside communities may not be as lucky.

The Pacific Northwest "has a long geological history of doing exactly what happened in Chile," said Brian Atwater, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Washington. "It's not a matter of if but when the next one will happen."

The last one hit in 1700, a magnitude-9 that sent 30- to 40-foot-tall tsunami waves crashing onto the coast and racing across the Pacific, damaging Japanese coastal villages.

news.yahoo.com...

I could not imagine this happening in Seattle, it would completely level the area. And they way things are going now there is a good chance it could happen any day.

I live on the new madrid fault here in West Ky, and after the 3.7 we had today, I think we are all at risk of a big one! The last big ones here 1811-1812 rang church bells in Boston. I for one am keeping an eye on the whole USA. Things are getting scary!

There will be a huge quake in California way before the midwest or northwest in my opinion. In fact I'm very suspicious why there hasn't been many big quakes in CA over the past few years. I mean every corner of the world has had a huge one but not the US. Just weird to me how America besides hurricanes is pretty lucky compared to other areas of the world.

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


Quiet before the storm, maybe?

Must suck living everyday with the fear of a major earthquake just around the corner.

Cant pretend to know what it must be like, but i guess every country has its own problems.