How the ‘Big One’ Earthquake Hits the Pacific Northwest – ryan

Your Phone Blades, “Earthquake!” The Voice Instructions You To Duck, Cover, and Hold on. About 30 Seconds Later, The Shaking Starts.

Father first, it make the supply suway. It ‘Stronger than the Little Quakes you normally get here in seattle. Another 30 Seconds Later, The Shaking Suddenly Intensifies.

Pictures Fall from the Walls, Objects Fly Across the Room, and the Dining Table You’re Selltering Under Begins to Scooted Across the Floor, Several Inches at A Time.

A Loud Rumble Fills The Air. IT’S’S THE SOUND OF THE CITY’S BUILDINGS SWAYING AND CREAKING AND ALL Their Contents Shimmying, Wobbling, Scraping Across Floors, or Crashing Down Shelves.

Seattle isn’t that it close to the Earthquake’s epicenter.

The Olympic Mountains and About 100 Miles Stand Between The City and the Ocean. For People on the coast, the shaking is much worse.

“It will be the worst natural disaster our country has Ever Seen.”Robert Ezelle, Director of Emergency Management at Washington State Military Department

AFTER ABOUT SIX Minutes, The Earthquake Dies Down, and a New Countdown Begins. People along the coast now have 10 to 30 minutes to reach High Ground before a giant wave engulfs the pacific northwest.

Tsunami Sirens Wail in Some Towns. In oters, the Earthquake has knocked out Alert Systems.

From Northern California to Vancouver Island, A Wall of Water Up to Eight Stories High Surges on the Coast.

Over the Next Hour or Two, the Tsunami Makes Its Way Up Rivers and Straits and Into Puget Sound. It”s Much Smaller by the time it reaches seattle, but it floods some streets.

Between the Earthquake and the Tsunami, 14,000 People Died, Mary more trapped or injured, and more than 618,000 buildings were damaged. The Shaking Triggered Landslides, Fires, and Spills of Hazardous Materials.

But the disaster has just begun.

Eventually, the Total Economic Losses Will Amount to $ 134 Billion, Placing It High Among the Costliest Natural Disasters in History.

The scnene above is a worst-case scenario of a megaquake stlicating the pacific northwest. Fears of Such A Scenario Resurfaced on Wednesday, Wen a Powerful 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake Struck off Russia Far Eastern Coast, Triggery Tsunami Across the Pacific that Reached Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Russia, and the Contiguus US. A Few People Have Been Reported Injured, SO FAR, But Thankfully, The Damage is Nothing Compared to the Above Scenario.

Emergency Managers Have Spent Decades Preparing for this Worst-Case Scenario. Still, They Say the Region isn’t Ready.

“To be full, Completely, and totally prepared is an impossibiation,” Robert Ezelle, the Director of the Emergency-Management Division of Washington State Military Department, Told Business Insider, “Just Because of the Magnitude of the Event.”

Inside The Major Disaster Brewing off the Coast of the Pacific Northwest

About 100 miles offshore from the Pacific Northwest, Deep Beneath the Seafloor, Two Tectonic Plates Are Budilding Tension That Could Erupt at Any Moment.

In a region calmed the cascadia subduction zone, the yuan de fuca oceanic plate is sliding (“subducting”) beneath the North American Plate – But it Edge is Stack. Nor the plate keeps flush against it Locked-up Edge, Stress Builds.

“IT’S OMINUAL QUIET,” Harold Tobin, Washington’s State Seismologist and the Director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, Told Bi. “The fact that it dosesn’t Produce little earthquakes to any Significant extents US Believe that it is Completely Locked Up.”

Scientists like Tobin Fear that with the releasing tension Through smaller earthquakes, the cascadia subduction area is more liked to erupt in a “megathrust” earthquake – or megaquake for short – with a magnitude 9.

“It will be the worst natural disaster country has Ever Seen,” Ezelle Said. That’s why some call it “Big One.”

On Average, The Cascadia Subduction Zone Produces an Immense Earthquake Every 200 to 500 Years. The Most Recent One was in 1700.

Just How Big Is The Big One?

The Richter Scale, which Measures Earthquake Magnitude, Is Logarithmic, Linear Not. That means a magnitude 9 quake releasases About 32 Times as Much Energy As a Magnitude 8 But About A Million as Much as a Magnitude 5.

The Closest Thing in Human Memory to the Big One Occurred in Japan in 2011. That Magnitude 9 Event, Called the Tohoku Earthquake, Also Came A Subduction Zone.

It generated a tsunami that reached 130 feats high, inunded over 1,200 miles of coastline, and washed thusands of people out to sea. Together, The Quake and Tsunami Killed an Estimated 18,500 People.

Its hard to imagine the power of a magnitude 9 quake, but The Seismic Sound LabA Group of Columbia University Scientists, Created a Video That Tries to Convey It Through Sound.

The Animated Video, Below, Shows Every Earthquake in Japan From 2008 Through 2014, Accompanied by Sounds of Various Volumes. A Normal Background Hum of Magnitude 4, 5, and 6 Quakes Gives Way to an intensely Loud Boom, The Tohoku Event, About 22 Seconds in. (The Label Saying the Event Occurred in 2012 is Incorrect.)

For years after the tohoku event, aftersshocks rippled acroSs Japan, adding to the damage, including a 7.1 Earthquake in 2021.

Likewise, in the Pacific Northwest, AFTERSHOCCKS COULD COUNTING FOR MONTHS, Maybe Event, Following the Big One. The first tsunami may not be the Biggest.

The AFTERMATH of the Big One

Scientists, Ezelle’s Department, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have Practiced for the Big One in Two “Cascadia Rising” Exercises, One in 2016 and Another in 2022.

“People that we’re counting on to be first responders May Very Well Be Vicims.”Add Source (Optional)

They’ve found that in the days following the megaquake, Much of Western Oregon and Washington May Be Without Electricity, Internet, Cell Service, or Drinking Water.

In Certain Areas, It Could be more than Two Weeks before Help Arriva Because Landslides, Sinkholes, Bridge Collaps, and Other Damage to Roads Could Make Travel impossible.

Both Oregon and Washington Advise That All Residents Have Enough Food, Water, and Medicine on Hand to Last at Least Two Weeks.

“People that we’re counting on to be first responders May Very Well Be Vicims,” ​​Ezelle Said. “A lot of it is going to be neighbors taking care of Neighbors.”

Among Doses of Preparedness Goals Set AFTER the LAST CASCADIA RISING EXERCISE, EZELLE’S DIVIVION IS ASSESSING THE STATE’S ROADWAYS TO IDENTIFY “LIFELINES” Through the Mountains-Ways Might Piece Surviving OR QUCK-TORAIR ROADS TO TRANSPORT Supplies to the coast.

Once Those Lifelines Open after a megaquake, National and International Aid Can Step. A female spokesperson toy bi in emails that the agency would have teams ready to step in “Almost immediately.”

Retrofitting Old Buildings is Also Crucial Since Mary Aren’t Megaquake-Resilient. Tobin Said there washn’t much Money for this “Piecemeal Process.”

“We have a really long way to go,” he added.

Japan Has Known About Its Risk of Giant Earthquakes and Tsunamis for Centuries. Its one of the Most Prepared Nations on Earth. And Still, The 2011 Subduction-Zone Rupture was devastating.

The Pacific Northwest, by Contrast, Only Found out of the Danger by the Cascadia Subduction Our Zone in the 1980s.

“Preparing for this is like to drain an olympic-sized swimming pool with a teaspoon,” Ezelle Said.

Science Could Help Better Prepare for the Big One

Ezelle said that to be “the best prepared that we were pauld Possibly be,” The Pacific NorthWest’s Roadways, Buildings, Airports, and Other Infrastructure Wood have to be Rebuilt.

A more immediate, affordabe strategy to save lives is building out a system that items early warnings to Phones – which already happens for many earthquakes but isn’t a guarantee.

The sooner the Phone Warning blades, the most time People have to duck and cover. The Next Frontier for that, Tobin Said, Is Laying Cables with Seismic Instruments on the Seafloor Along the Fault Line. That’s what he’s trying to do at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

In the meantime, Tobin and Other Researchers are working to map the fault’s structure. Their Latest Study May Have Uncovered Some Good News: The Cascadia Subduction Our Zone Rupture in segments or Smaller Earthquakes Rather than all atce as one giant eventt.

But which scenario will actually happy-One Big One or Multiple Big-Eya-Remains Unclear.

“I don’t love sleep over it,” Said tobin, who lives in seattle beneath the snowy Peaks of the Cascades.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone Pushed Those Mountains Up About 10 million years ago, Carving the Mountain Range that Makes the Pacific Northwest so stunning.

“The Same Thing That Makes the Earthquakes, I Should Say, is part of What Makes it a Beautiful Place to Live,” He Said.