The Big One
By Claire N.
One of the most famous rumors about the west coast revolves around the uncertainty of the San Andreas fault. Many people claim that the state of California is just going to drop into the Pacific ocean. The worry has reached all the way to Hollywood with movies such as "San Andreas", in which Dwayne Johnson saves his family from a massive earthquake and tsunami. The definition of an earthquake is the sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust or volcanic action. They can result in many losses of life and the destruction of many communities. Modern day earthquake technology cannot predict when an earthquake is going to happen, it can only warn people a few minutes ahead of time. If people do not begin to prepare themselves for the inevitability of earthquakes, then they will be putting themselves and their homes in more danger than necessary.
Despite the extreme threat of the San Andreas to Southern California, the danger of the Cascadia Subduction Zone is much greater. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a reverse fault about 700 miles off the coast of Washington and Oregon, compared to the San Andreas which is a side slip fault located mainly on land. A side slip fault simply grinds the plates sideway. However, the Cascadia Subduction Zone consists of the North American tectonic plate, and the Juan de Fuca plate that is slowly sliding under North America. The problem occurs when the fault builds up enough pressure that the Juan de Fuca plates flings itself back upward. The earthquake this would cause would be massive in itself but, the earthquake would be accompanied by landslides, fires and a tsunami. The Cascadia subduction zone is an area about 1,000 milrd long that travels from
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