1,000-foot-tall mega-tsunami threatens US across three regions, experts warn

Experts have issued a warning about a potential “mega-tsunami” that could sweep away entire communities with its massive waves.Alaska, Hawaii and the West Coast face an ongoing threat due to how close they are to disaster zones — and the West Coast just received a renewed warning.A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that an earthquake could erupt along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault that stretches from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino, California.Researchers from Virginia Tech found that a potential powerful earthquake combined with rising sea levels could lead to a mega-tsunami, most severely impacting residents and properties in northern California, northern Oregon and southern Washington.A mega-tsunami is a disastrous wave caused by the displacement of ocean water, which can be triggered by earthquakes, landslides or volcanic eruptions.The experts stressed that the fault line has a 15% chance of creating an earthquake with a magnitude 8.0 or greater within the next 50 years, which could cause coastal land to sink up to 6.5 feet.“The expansion of the coastal floodplain following a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake has not been previously quantified, and the impacts to land use could significantly increase the timeline to recovery,” Tina Dura, lead author of the study and assistant professor of geosciences in the College of Science, said in a statement.Alaska has continued to be a hotspot for landslides due to its rugged terrain and frequent earthquakes, and with the threat of climate change melting glaciers, slopes are becoming destabilized and rocks are loosening, the Daily Mail reported.In Hawaii, volcanic islands have a long history of mega-tsunamis caused by collapsing volcanoes.About 105,000 years ago, a 1,000-foot wave crashed into the island of Lanai.Volcanoes in Hawaii grow by layers of lava piling up, which can cause unstable slopes with the potential for collapse, especially ...