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The Really Big One
Article

The Really Big One

An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when.

Kathryn Schulz
The New Yorker, 2015
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Scientific
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Scientists have recently learned about a fault line in the Pacific Ocean that has triggered at least seven large-magnitude earthquakes in the past 3,500 years. Within the next decades, the fault line is prone to trigger another massive earthquake followed by a tsunami that can render large portions of the US Pacific Northwest beyond recognition. Kathryn Schulz, a Pulitzer Prize–winning staff writer at The New Yorker, has penned a gripping scientific narrative about the impending megaquake. getAbstract believes it’s a must-read for residents of the Pacific Northwest, but recommends reading it no matter where you live.

Take-Aways

  • The Cascadia subduction zone, a little-known fault line that runs offshore from Northern California to British Columbia, could cause a massive earthquake in the next few decades.
  • In case of a full-margin rupture at the Cascadia subduction zone, an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 9.2, followed by a massive tsunami, will strike the coastal Pacific Northwest.
  • A Cascadia earthquake and tsunami would kill at least 13,000 people, injure 27,000 and displace nearly a million more.

About the Author

Kathryn Schulz is a Pulitzer Prize–winning staff writer at The New Yorker.

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