Preliminary information from the latest research into the Cascadia Subduction Zone suggests the possibility of a tsunami stronger than previously believed.
Scientists are just back from a monthlong research cruise in the Pacific Ocean off Washington state, where they were trying to find the stickiest point on a section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the huge undersea fault that breaks loose every few hundred years, generating a massive tsunami and earthquake.
The San Andreas fault in California slides side to side, but the Cascadia Subduction Zone moves up and down. That vertical jolt is like throwing a log in the water. It generates a big wave, which can send a 40-foot surge of water at the speed of a jetliner slamming into the coasts of Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
More: Scientists map Oregon tsunami inundation zones
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