The following is a fictionalized scenario, though many scientists agree that it is not
only possible- but inevitable.
And most expect it to happen very soon.
It's a quiet Valentine's day morning in 2021.
For a month and a half the world's been grateful that the dreadfulness of 2020 is finally over,
but it seems disaster has one last gasp.
A hundred miles off the North American northwest coast, two continental plates are stuck in
a million year old shoving match.
The Juan De Fuca oceanic plate and the North American continental plate have been drifting
in opposite directions for much longer than humanity has been around, with the Juan De
Fuca plate being forced under the massive North American plate.
The process hasn't been smooth though, and the two plates have been 'stuck' in place
for a very long time, the massive forces acting on the Cascadia Subduction Zone creating a
noticeable bulge in the crust of the earth.
At 8:03 AM, eighty miles of the Juan De Fuca plate finally buckle from the incredible strain,
slipping under the North American plate.
In an instant, the bulge flattens, and energy equivalent to the total output of the entire
planet in one year is released.
Mere milliseconds after the collapse, the entire Pacific Northwest coast, from British
Columbia to northern California begins to shake.
The foreshock alone measures at a whopping magnitude 6, rattling commuters just now driving
to work all across the pacific coast of north america.
Even as far south as Los Angeles homes are rattled, pictures falling off the walls.
But the nightmare has only just begun.
The shaking very quickly intensifies dramatically, and suddenly buildings and bridges are swaying
several feet in the air, pushing their earthquake tolerances to the absolute limit.
Smart government regulation has mandated for decades that American and Canadian high rise
buildings and bridges both be built to withstand large quakes, and despite their appearance
even the largest skyscrapers are surprisingly resistant.
But no skyscraper, and no city on earth, has ever faced the wrath of a magnitude 10 earthquake.
The shaking is so severe, that the tops of skyscrapers are now swaying over three feet
in the opposite direction of their bases, causing a 6 foot offset.
This is too much for many of even the most modern, and earthquake-proof buildings, and
internal support columns begin to crack under the incredible strain.
Inside of high rise offices and apartment buildings, people are thrown across rooms,
then violently tossed back in the opposite direction from the awesome force of the mighty
shaking.
Water pipes feeding fire suppression systems burst, flooding the inside of buildings.
After the first thirty seconds, some of the interior walls begin to crumble, exposing
dangerous live wires to the water streaming out of burst pipes- thousands are electrocuted.
Incredible as it seems, there are still four and a half minutes left of shaking to go.
Plate glass windows, built to resist hurricane force winds and tremendous impacts, shatter
from the strain of twisting and swaying in their frames as the building dances back and
forth around them.
People are hurled out of now open windows and to the streets below, those running for
their lives on city streets are showered with guillotine blade sized chunks of glass and
falling people alike.
On bridges across the American northwest, cars are violently thrown to and fro.
Panicking drivers either try to speed off the wildly swaying bridges or slam their brakes
in terror.
This causes a massive traffic jam, trapping motorists on the dangerously swaying bridges.
Many flee their vehicles on foot, crawling over stuck vehicles and doing their best to
not be thrown off the bridge by the violent swaying- but after forty five seconds of violent
shaking, it's finally too much.
The structural tolerances of bridges all across cascadia are exceeded, and one by one bridges
collapse, plunging thousands to their deaths.
Rail lines are severed all across the region, causing trains to derail and plow into surrounding
buildings.
Passengers and cargo are spilled all over cities and the wilderness, causing many more
deaths- along with a massive environmental disaster as millions of tons of industrial
chemicals and wastes are spilled across some of the most pristine forest in North America.
Massive fires erupt as oil and gas being shipped by rail freight is spilled in train disaster
after disaster.
Now the Pacific Northwest is not only shaking, it's burning.
Back in the cities, people flee the violently swaying buildings, but they find no safety
on the streets.
Falling glass and masonry slices and crushes people running for their lives, and as gas
mains are severed massive explosions rock cities in the affected area.
Raw sewage floods city streets, sinkholes begin to emerge and swallow people by the
dozens.
At a minute and a half of shaking, all but the sturdiest skyscrapers begin to crumble.
There are still three and a half minutes left.
Powerful waves of energy deep beneath the earth combine with the normal shaking caused
by the massive earthquake to create a unique scenario in the ground above it.
The soil itself seems to liquefy, shaken so violently that it becomes almost like quicksand.
While most skyscrapers have survived up to this point, this is the final nail in the
coffin.
Buildings weighing millions of tons suddenly sink several feet into the ground, losing
their firm foundations and now shaking uncontrollably.
The center support columns vital to keeping skyscrapers aloft snap like toothpicks, and
almost as if caught in a controlled demolition, skyscraper after skyscraper seems to collapse
inwards.
Masonry the size of boulders rains down across city blocks, burying anybody caught out in
the open.
Those stuck inside the collapsing buildings have almost no chance of survival- though
a few of those who took shelter in basements and parking garages become entombed by the
falling debris.
Incredibly, the earth continues to shake at such violent magnitude for another three minutes.
The full five minutes of constant shaking is enough to bring down nearly every structure
over four stories all across the North American northwest.
The cities of Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Spokane, Tacoma, and Boise, along with a few
others, are almost completely leveled.
It is devastation on a scale humanity has not seen since the end of the second world
war, entire cities once full of over half a million people, have nearly disappeared
in a haze of dust and smoke.
Iconic landmarks such as Seattle's space needle are gone, brought low by the worst earthquake
humanity has ever endured.
Massive fires have broken out, and from space it appears as if almost the entire region
of Cascadia is in flames.
However, fire will very soon be the least of the survivor's concerns.
Less than a minute after the shaking finally stops, it finally arrives- the most devastating
tsunami in recorded history.
The incoming tsunami is so massive, that entire ports all along the coast are emptied of water
just before its arrival.
Many recognize this portent of impending doom from videos of the infamous tsunamis in southeast
asia and Japan, and begin to flee for their lives.
Others stare dumbfounded as marine life flops and gasps for breath where just moments ago
they were swimming in water up to thirty feet deep.
The fish don't have to wait long for the water to return.
Racing at 1,000 miles per hour, the tsunami towers 200 feet in the air, or almost 80 feet
higher than the 2011 Japanese tsunami that devastated the country.
Survivors of the violent shaking scramble to get to rooftops all across the North American
coast, but there are few buildings tall enough to save them- the incoming wave measures nearly
14 stories tall, and as it finally breaks on land, it washes right over coastal infrastructure,
crushing thousands under the pounding waves.
The real devastation however comes not from the height of the tsunami wave, but the incredible
power behind it.
Entire buildings are ripped from their foundations and carried along with the wave, as the waters
push an incredible half-mile inland in most places.
Anything still standing in coastal cities is now under assault by a battering ram of
trillions of tons of water and debris- and for most surviving buildings it's too much.
Skyscrapers that miraculously survived the shaking are brought low by the battering ram
effect of the crashing waves.
The wave takes almost half a day to begin to wash back out to sea- by which time a tsunami
wave sent towards Asia finally makes landfall in Japan and China's coast.
Hawaii has long since been inundated, though thanks to the warning actual fatalities are
almost zero.
Devastation reminiscent of the 2011 Japanese tsunami wreaks havoc as far south as Vietnam.
Back in North America, rescue efforts by the US military begin almost immediately after
the start of the disaster, but there are few to save.
By the time the waters finally recede, any survivors of the earthquake who had taken
refuge in basements or car garages have been drowned.
Others further inland and ahead of the waves may have as little as days left to live before
breathable air runs out.
With thousands of collapsed buildings to search in each affected city, and dozens of major
population centers affected, there's simply not enough rescue personnel in the US and
Canada to save most of those trapped.
Sea levels return to their normal state after a day, but the fires take two weeks to put
out.
So much smoke has been created by the burning cities that smog spreads as far east as Detroit.
When the smoke and fire finally clears, the North American Pacific Northwest looks like
a world war has been waged there.
Cities have been turned to rubble and ash, but the pristine forests and pride of Cascadia
have burned out of control for half a month.
Untold millions of acres have been reduced to glowing embers, the damage shockingly visible
from space and appearing like a massive, gray scar on the North American continent.
The final death toll is in the millions, and will only climb as disease and starvation
begins to take its toll on an entire region who's infrastructure has been completely devastated.
To make matters worse, a resurgent winter brings its icy chill down on the area, and
many survivors freeze to death for a lack of proper heating.
The US military pours its massive resources into humanitarian efforts in cities on both
the American and Canadian side of the border, bolstered by a huge global response to this
unprecedented disaster.
Even countries normally at odds with the United States send aid, Chinese and Russian search
and rescue personnel working alongside US and Canadian personnel.
Much like in the Christmas tsunami of Southeast Asia and the Japanese 2011 tsunami, the world
has been united by tragedy, but the affected area is simply too large- there are too many
victims and not enough aid.
The earthquake's death toll will continue well into summer as starvation and disease
plagues those who lived through the most destructive earthquake in world history.
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