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The Cascadia earthquake: America’s worst disaster?

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a sleeping monster lurking just off the Northwest coast of the U.S. It extends 600 miles between Northern California and Vancouver, B.C., and experiences a massive megathrust earthquake every 250 years on average. The last one happened 321 years ago and scientists say there is a 30% chance we’ll see another in the next 50 years.

In this episode of PBS’ Weathered, Haley & Aldrich Geotechnical and Resilience Engineer Allison Pyrch discusses potential environmental and infrastructure impacts that the Pacific Northwest may experience if a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake occurs.

Watch the video.