00:00Imagine a wall of water 1,000 feet high crashing into the U.S. Pacific coast.
00:05This isn't science fiction. It's a real warning.
00:08Scientists are raising the alarm over a potential mega-tsunami that could hit the U.S. West Coast.
00:13The danger lies beneath the Cascadia subduction zone, a 600-mile fault stretching from California to Canada.
00:20Here, immense pressure is building as one tectonic plate pushes under another.
00:25Virginia Tech researchers say there's a 15% chance of a magnitude 8.0 or greater quake striking in the next 50 years.
00:33That quake could drop the ground by over 6 feet and trigger waves hundreds of feet tall.
00:39Some simulations even show tsunamis reaching 1,000 feet high.
00:43If this happens, places like Seattle, Portland, and Northern California could be underwater in minutes.
00:50Cities would have almost no time to evacuate.
00:52Thousands of lives and miles of infrastructure are at risk.
00:56This isn't just theory.
00:57The last time this fault ruptured, back in 1700, it caused a tsunami that reached Japan.
01:03Now, with bigger cities and more people on the coast, the impact could be catastrophic.
01:09The study urges better warning systems, stronger buildings, and smarter evacuation plans.
01:14Because one day, that wave will come.
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