Scientists warn of triple threat, say massive earthquake can drown parts of US

A massive earthquake can drown several parts of America in the future, a new study has warned. Coupled with climate-change-driven sea-level rise, the quake will increase flooding across northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Not to mention, the quake will have effects of its own.

 Researchers at Virginia Tech state in their paper that a powerful earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone could cause coastal land to sink by as much as 6.5 feet, SciTech Daily reported.

The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences states that the most impacted would be southern Washington, northern Oregon, and northern California. These regions are densely populated, meaning people would lose their houses.

Tina Dura, lead author of the study and assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science, and her team created thousands of earthquake models to estimate how much land would sink would be caused by a future Cascadia megaquake.

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They also calculated how much the one per cent floodplain would expand across 24 estuaries and coastal communities along the fault zone.

Two timeline scenarios of the big one were taken into account - one that would hit today and the other in 2100. Scientists found that areas exposed to flooding would greatly increase when a quake hits today, helped by the rising sea water. 14,350 residents, 22,500 structures, and 777 miles of roadway would be in the post-earthquake floodplain.

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In the year 2100 scenario, sea levels along the Cascadia subduction zone could be up to three feet higher than today. This means that the effects of future earthquake-driven subsidence would be three times greater.

Dura says the rise in sea levels and earthquake-driven subsidence will delay rescue and relief efforts for those affected by the quake itself. "Long-term effects could render many coastal communities uninhabitable,” Dura added.

The soil will become extremely saline, affecting cattle grazing and farming. Natural systems that act as a buffer against storm surges, like coastal estuaries, intertidal wetlands and protective dunes and beaches, will also be irreversibly eroded.

Dura and her team are studying ancient earthquakes. Their research suggests that over the last six to seven thousand years, 11 great earthquakes have hit approximately every 200 to 800 years in the Pacific Northwest. The last time this happened, 1.5 to 6.5 feet of land along the coastline sank.