The Really Big One

[Bunk]

Quite the story about the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Remind me not to retire on the west coast - this is truly terrifying. I've long known about this subduction zone, but never really appreciated the scale of the potential devastation until reading this very impactful New Yorker piece.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...really-big-one

[Hugh Jahrmes]

Good read.. Not sure how I knew basically nothing about this.

Working for FEMA must be a total bummer sometimes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fuzz]

My brother moved to Vancouver a few years ago, and I was kinda worried about this. He is moving to Ontario in the fall. Considering the giant horsehoe he has wedged up his arse, expect the quake to hit sometime shortly after he leaves.

We were in Thailand during the quake/tsunami and dodged Phuket area by his doing, a day before it hit. We went to Jamaica, but he couldn't make it, just as Hurricane Sandy hit... He's life is full of near misses.

[surferguy]

The article doesn't mention much about Vancouver but it will also be hit pretty hard. Richmond is built on the Fraser River delta and will also be hit by liquefaction

[YYC in LAX]

Very good read

[Bigtime]

I think it was the summer of '97 we did a family road trip to the Olympic Peninsula and stayed on the west coast there at Ocean Shores, Washington. After reading this article I'm pretty much assuming you are dead in a place like that when it hits.

[PsYcNeT]

Great read.

[gallione11]

Welp, looks like I'm dead when this hits. Great article to read first thing in the morning.

[transplant99]

Fascinating stuff. I was aware on a peripheral basis about the Cascade plate etc...but had no idea about the ramifications of its movement and when it all lets go.

Hope I am not around when this happens again.

[Vulcan]

I'm far enough up the Gulf of Georgia and at 100' elevation that I won't have any problem from a Tsunami but ground liquefaction is another matter as I'm near the edge of a gravel hill. Not much sense in worrying about it though.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I would think most of the BC coast would survive in terms of tidal wave... that thing ain't getting past Vancouver Island. Granted the quake would probably result in a bunch of the lower mainland just sinking into the sea.

[Montana Moe]

I happily exchanged being 90 minutes from the Yellowstone Caldera for being 90 minutes from the Oregon Coast. One is survivable, one is certain death.

Live your life, but be prepared.

[FlamesAddiction]

Could you imagine the looting in Vancouver if a disaster like that happened?

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Could you imagine the looting in Vancouver if a disaster like that happened?

Forget the Richter scale, this would be like like a 9.7 on the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot Scale!

[Regulator75]

What about the other "big one" in Yellowstone.

http://www.weather.com/science/natur...voir-discovery

Recent discovery of another massive magma chamber below the Super Volcano.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

What about the other "big one" in Yellowstone.

http://www.weather.com/science/natur...voir-discovery

Recent discovery of another massive magma chamber below the Super Volcano.

That's the actual big one -- the Yellowstone Caldera going off would be close to an extinction level event for the entire planet. The only worse thing that could happen would be getting hit by an asteroid.

A giant earthquake in the Pacific Northwest sucks for them but the rest of the world would be largely unaffected.

[SportsJunky]

Yeah that Yellowstone one is particularly scary.

I still get back to Portland often and I agree with MM. It's just far enough from the coast that a person could probably get mobile if needed and stay in front of the destruction. At least that's what I'm going to tell myself.

[bc-chris]

wow - great article!

Originally Posted by Tyler

Forget the Richter scale, this would be like like a 9.7 on the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot Scale!

i was thinking something like, 'what if the canucks were at home playing the oil' when the quake hit - could the world be this blessed?? heh... that's terrible!!

it is scary to think about what will happen. i recall reading an article a while back that predicted Hope could possibly by 'ocean front property' after the big one. i know in the okanagan we get the occasional very very minor tremor (i think there is a minor fault line running thru the valley) - but they are rarely noticeable. i think most of our concerns are with forest fires

[d_phaneuf]

some Pacific NW Earthquake experts did an AMA after the article came out

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...nything_about/

Say that the "The scenario left an impression of much greater devastation that is anticipated to occur"

Also that the Wave's wouldn't be big enough to really effect Seattle or Vancouver

[d_phaneuf]

they make it sound worse for Portland than anything, they think it will suffer most because they didn't realize the fault went so far south until the 1980's so most bridges haven't been built to Earthquake code.