A new scientific warning has many looking with concern toward the Pacific Northwest. Experts say the Cascadia Subduction Zone could unleash a disaster unlike anything modern America has seen before: a “mega-tsunami” so large it could rise up to 1,000 feet and crash into the U.S. Pacific Coast.
Scientists from Virginia Tech sounded the alarm in a recent study, describing the danger from the 600-mile fault that stretches from Northern California to Vancouver Island. The report estimates there is a 15% chance of a magnitude 8.0 or greater quake striking there within the next 50 years.
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Such an event, they warn, would be sudden and catastrophic. “Unlike gradual climate-driven events, a Cascadia earthquake would happen suddenly, leaving no time for adaptation or mitigation,” explained Tina Dura, a Virginia Tech geoscientist and lead author of the study. Researchers note that the quake could cause land to drop by as much as 6.5 feet, which would “dramatically expand floodplains and trigger giant waves that would reach shorelines within minutes.”
And the size of those waves would be staggering. While ordinary tsunamis typically rise only a few feet, the simulations show a Cascadia mega-tsunami could tower hundreds of feet, “far exceeding current hazard maps.” That would put millions of people and countless homes, businesses and critical infrastructure in the direct path of destruction.
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The Biblical Lens
While the science highlights the risk, believers know that none of this should come as a surprise. Jesus Himself warned that before His return, the world would experience increasing signs of upheaval: “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Matt. 24:7–8). Faults shifting deep beneath the earth will always produce earthquakes, and in turn, earthquakes can produce tsunamis.
It is not a matter of if these things will happen, but when. Yet Christians are not called to live in fear of these warnings. Instead, they are called to live with urgency. While the earth groans and shakes, we have a clear mission that does not change: the Great Commission.
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Rather than being paralyzed by fear of what may come, we should be energized to focus even more on spreading the gospel, making disciples and preparing hearts for the return of Jesus.
James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
