9.2 Magnitude Mega-Quake Could Destroy Pacific Northwest

The massive quake, up to magnitude 9.2 earthquake, would last about four minutes, according to scientists and seismologists, with a wall of water following about 15 minutes later. Seismologists know that how long an earthquake lasts is a decent proxy for its magnitude. The 1989 earthquake in Loma Prieta, California, which killed sixty-three people and caused six billion dollars’ worth of damage, lasted about fifteen seconds and had a magnitude of 6.9. A thirty-second earthquake generally has a magnitude in the mid-sevens. A minute-long quake is in the high sevens, a two-minute quake has entered the eights, and a three-minute quake is in the high eights. By four minutes, an earthquake has hit magnitude 9.0.

Shepard Smith, news anchor at Fox News for Shepard Smith Reporting news program, reported that scientists say the worst natural disaster in the history of the nation is coming. Quoting a report from The New Yorker, Smith said that the federal government estimates 13,000 Americans will die in a major earthquake and tsunami in the Pacific Northwest, also known as Cascadia, a region in western North America bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east.

The New Yorker reported that FEMA calculations show these types of earthquakes happen at regular intervals in this specific part of the world, roughly every 240 years. The last one was more than 300 years ago, in 1700, when a quake there sent a 600-foot wave of water all the way to Japan.