Cascadia Subduction Zone

[majorhavoc]

Current Events of Note didn't seem like the right home for this ... yet.  If the other mods have a better subforum for this then please, by all means.

I first learned of the Cascadia Subduction Zone on the old Zombie Squad forums (hand over heart: May it rest in peace).  Honestly, I thought at first it was the kind of vivid fantasy of the doomsday prepper crowd. I've since learned otherwise.  If this isn't the stuff of nightmares, I don't know what is.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/us/tsunami-northwest-evacuation-towers.html

OCEAN SHORES, Wash. — The 350 children at Ocean Shores Elementary School have practiced their earthquake survival plans, dropping under desks to ride out the convulsions, then racing upstairs to the second floor to await the coming tsunami.

Unless something changes, their preparations will most likely be futile.

The Cascadia fault off the Pacific Northwest coast is poised for a massive, 9.0-magnitude earthquake at some point, scientists say, a rupture that would propel a wall of water across much of the Northwest coast within minutes. Low-lying coastal neighborhoods in Washington, Oregon and Northern California would be under 10 feet or more of water, with the elementary school in Ocean Shores, Wash., facing an inundation that could be 23 feet deep.

The second-floor refuge students rush to in their drills stands 13 feet off the ground — in a structure that was not built to withstand a raging tsunami in the first place.

"The fact of the matter is that if a tsunami occurs tomorrow, we are going to lose all of our children," said Andrew Kelly, the superintendent of the North Beach School District, which includes Ocean Shores.

If the best available option for these residents is to climb the nearest tree, you know this could get very bad.  That area of impact map looks for all the world like where my father lives on Siesta Key in Florida.  I know from first hand experience that even if you jumped in your car within 30 seconds of the first warning, your ass is still f*cked.

https://pnsn.org/outreach/earthquakesources/csz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_subduction_zone
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/pcmsc/science/cascadia-subduction-zone-marine-geohazards
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article257372217.html

[RoneKiln]

Given that earthquakes and the following tsunamis come in a very wide range of sizes, a 13 foot elevation gain may still save their lives.

I grew up doing earthquake drills at school. I'll ask around to see if that's still done.