While you’re watching to see if there’s a tsunami, just reminding you of this, one of the most terrifying and well-written pieces of long-form journalism I’ve ever read www.newyorker.com/magazine/201... - ThreadSky

kenwhite.bsky.social • 80 days ago

While you’re watching to see if there’s a tsunami, just reminding you of this, one of the most terrifying and well-written pieces of long-form journalism I’ve ever read

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one

Comments

nwtrailhound.bsky.social•79 days ago

Fuuuck. I read that years ago. I have it bookmarked so I can pass on nightmares, when appropriate.

nwtrailhound.bsky.social•79 days ago

This article is also why I have 110 gallons of stored water, 60 days of freeze dried food, and extra rounds in the shed.

datafourmiles.bsky.social•80 days ago

I grew up in San Diego, California hearing we were going to drop off into the ocean. Wildfires drove me out. Now living on an Island in the PNW. I guess I just live dangerously.
🤷🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️

auraltrauma.bsky.social•80 days ago

as a resident of Vancouver Island I have come to accept my fate if the big one ever hits in my lifetime

ibgwen4fun.bsky.social•80 days ago

🙋‍♀️ PNW person still afraid to read this article, though I have started to many times.

andrewtk.bsky.social•79 days ago

Thanks, I definitely needed a reminder of my impending doom here in Seattle.

kristin-wilson.bsky.social•80 days ago

This piece was so good. I've read it at least a dozen times over the years. The ghosts forests. The logarithmic explanation between a 7.9 and an 8.0 earthquake. And that the earthquake there is massively overdue. Absolutely incredible reporting.

rubypanther.bsky.social•79 days ago

Average interval is between 500 and 700 years, and it's been under 400 since the last one. It could happen at any time, but it is not overdue.

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

It scared everyone but us PNWers. We should be scared but instead we accepted fate for getting to live in the most beautiful part of the country.

starwielder.bsky.social•80 days ago

Plus, when you live next to multiple volcanoes just itching to be in a headline, you kinda accept that life can get spicy at times :D

mbwilliams.bsky.social•80 days ago

I was CoS for Chair of Ways and Means when this article came out, and while we already were funding a lot of public building retrofits, the pressure to move faster surged to 11. But there’s only so much $, and pretty much every school and bridge west of the Cascades was vulnerable.

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

That had to be difficult I imagine. You want to do the right thing and fix it all but you can't. 😟

mbwilliams.bsky.social•80 days ago

We live on the west side of the Willamette, but half our metro area (260k) is on the east side, including both hospitals. I seldom cross the river w/o thinking about how I would get home if the CSZ unzipped.

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

Whenever I was stuck on i90 I'd wonder what the quickest footpath would be home in case it happened then. Had me looking into walkie talkies until I realized distance would make them useless.

nalyd620.bsky.social•80 days ago

I moved from California and a devastating wildfire. I have experienced earthquakes my whole life there and now I live in PNW. I’m not going anywhere.

flyingnone.bsky.social•80 days ago

I live below a volcano too, so it's fine.

resister4344.bsky.social•80 days ago

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

🙌😎👊👊

bethn8r.bsky.social•80 days ago

Read that article right as we were deciding whether to move to Portland. I have enough anxiety in everyday life, I simply couldn’t do it.

wonderkitten.bsky.social•80 days ago

My kid is going to grad school in Portland next fall…I’m not panicking you’re panicking

sadwill.bsky.social•80 days ago

I decided to eliminate any PhD programs in Oregon or Washington after reading that piece.

jorunoj.bsky.social•80 days ago

(⊙＿⊙)

franklytired.bsky.social•80 days ago

AND it is overdue. We are 324 years into a 300-500 event cycle.
Everyone west of I-5 should reconsider life choices.

Sobex.social.sciences.re.ap.brid.gy•80 days ago

@kenwhite.bsky.social Damn i's super interesting to learn that the San Andrea fault is NOT the deadliest fault on the US west coast, and that's there's one with a larger maximal magnitude.

hughman3.bsky.social•80 days ago

well when not worried about that "big one" you can worry about the Yellowstone super volcano that could wipe out most of the continent

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/when-sleeping-giant-awakes/

karinkirk.bsky.social•80 days ago

We'll have many warning signs if/when Yellowstone wakes up.
Earthquakes have no warning.

hughman3.bsky.social•80 days ago

Would be a terrible tragedy. Lot's we do in this country to reduce impact of earthquakes through building codes especially (good government)

But there are many things that are very bad which we are unable to even agree exist or want to solve: climate change, human rights violations, corruption

marieguarde.bsky.social•79 days ago

cristabel.bsky.social•80 days ago

That article haunts my dreams.

cwolbrecht.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’m on a plane to Seattle RIGHT NOW, Ken.

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

Stay away from old looking buildings because ~90% of them were not updated. Also stay East of I5.

objectiveunlocked.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

karlbode.com•80 days ago

thanks I had almost forgotten about this

jeanniel.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

tinyfrightening.bsky.social•80 days ago

Could you maybe gift link?

rrodger.bsky.social•80 days ago

*weeps in vancouverite*

gscl.bsky.social•79 days ago

📌

geekdownrange.bsky.social•79 days ago

I recall reading this just before or after the Cascadia Rising 2016 exercise. It was quite the wakeup call for many local governments and agencies. The AARs are mostly all online. As expected, they're all a bit toned down, but still give a good idea of how bad it will be.

darryl-ramm.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy•80 days ago

@kenwhite.bsky.social

I so want to see a room of drunk people reading the article doing the hand excercises...

aleea.bsky.social•79 days ago

I share this with a class each spring. It gets more terrifying each year that passes.

404apathy.bsky.social•80 days ago

Great! My anxiety and dystopian nightmares were starting to bore me, but now there's this to sleep on while I'm in felon34's prison!

Thanks, guys!

goodonepapa.bsky.social•80 days ago

And we're still not gonna use a GD umbrella.

orogenesis.bsky.social•80 days ago

First thing I thought of.

shaym114.bsky.social•80 days ago

In the PNW, it’s on our list of worst-case scenarios.

portfoliocarmel.bsky.social•79 days ago

📌

truthiness2010.bsky.social•80 days ago

I read this when it was first published and it was just as terrifying on a reread now.

pottymouthprincess.bsky.social•80 days ago

I laugh at my fellow PNW residents who read this and were shocked. How dumb do you have to be to not know the risks when you live here.

cbowers.bsky.social•80 days ago

An excellent piece, but so many non-west coast folks read it and were convinced that *everything* in OR and WA will be leveled

lilyflagg.bsky.social•80 days ago

West of I-5, at least. 😬

cbowers.bsky.social•80 days ago

Nope

cbowers.bsky.social•80 days ago

I think everyone misinterprets the one quote saying that FEMA uses that as an assumption in preparing for a worst case scenario. If you look at the USGS forecasts, though, outside of the greater Seattle area the likely damage between the coastal range and I5 is significant but not catastrophic

dougwar40k.bsky.social•80 days ago

Hear me out: fracking. Just tons and tons of fracking. Fracking, as the rando bus passenger from _North by Northwest_ might say, where there ain't no gas. They say that causes earthquakes, right? Maybe a few hundred magnitude-7 earthquakes are better than one magnitude-9.5?

david-cornelson.bsky.social•80 days ago

I actually recommended one of my daughters _not_ go to school in Portland because I had just read that article.

pottymouthprincess.bsky.social•80 days ago

Ridiculous.

david-cornelson.bsky.social•80 days ago

We’re in Illinois. That article is scary af.

pottymouthprincess.bsky.social•80 days ago

I get it, but there are dangers no matter where you live.

david-cornelson.bsky.social•80 days ago

It gets hot and cold here. You could theoretically get hit by a bus. We don’t have earthquakes or hurricanes. If you’re far enough from the lake maybe a tornado. Maybe a brown recluse spider sneaks in your pants.

Anyway. That daughter landed in Austin instead.

penname.bsky.social•79 days ago

If the New Madrid fault acts up again the way it did in 1811-1812, we could be in trouble. The state is more populated with taller buildings and not a lot of earthquake preparation. The sandy soil in some parts of the state could liquify.

pottymouthprincess.bsky.social•80 days ago

I've spent a winter in Chicago and that was brutal.

cjmoose.bsky.social•79 days ago

It is not at all ridiculous.

classyearlgrey.bsky.social•79 days ago

THANKS KEN I LIVE HERE AND AM TRYING TO FIND SEISMOLOGIST ANALYSIS, NOT DIE OF STRESS.

on-tannhausergate.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yeah, I live here. I’m not revisiting that article.

sjseidel.bsky.social•80 days ago

Can confirm. A must read.

clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social•80 days ago

One of those pieces I’ve read once and will never ever read again, along with the Washington Post hot car piece.

mitchellst.bsky.social•80 days ago

There's one on Sandy Hook as well as that is my top three once and never again.

chemjobber.bsky.social•80 days ago

hot car, yep

astill73.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

painedumonde.bsky.social•80 days ago

A sea story: I had the watch in port at Nawiliwili Kauai, went to bed on the patrol boat around midnight. The SN watchstander woke me up at 0300 saying the computer was beeping abnormally. This better be good, SFB. Went inside the station, it was beeping weirdly. Something I never heard before.

painedumonde.bsky.social•80 days ago

Logged in, checked the message queue. Now if you've served you know what Flash means, I gulped, quick read, gulped again, rang HONO, hey did you check messages rece – HOLY FUCK, dial tone. Tsunami warning from a Japanese earthquake. All called an hour later by buoy data.

painedumonde.bsky.social•80 days ago

**called OFF

crimedog.bsky.social•79 days ago

Chris Goldfinger?!

tahoeboulder.bsky.social•80 days ago

I remember reading this when it came out. 😳

smarmyeod.bsky.social•80 days ago

A great lecture by a geology professor on the same subject:

cheryldc.bsky.social•80 days ago

My favorite New Yorker piece.

iamleahanderson.bsky.social•79 days ago

For Irwin Allen enthusiasts a Washington State DoT simulation is wonderfully apocalyptic but that viaduct has since been removed. Still fun to watch. #cascadiafault #thebigone #seattlequake

iamleahanderson.bsky.social•79 days ago

Also I live in Seattle and grew up in SF. Gallows humor.

hayseedlucy.bsky.social•80 days ago

The article is behind a paywall. Sigh. 😔

papakila.bsky.social•80 days ago

Open it using the reader on your phone.

hayseedlucy.bsky.social•80 days ago

It worked! Thanks so much!!

papakila.bsky.social•80 days ago

Great! My pleasure.

thomp.bsky.social•80 days ago

@aspiringpeasant.com nightmare fuel here.

aspiringpeasant.com•79 days ago

yeah this is a factor in where we live and where we could move for sure

thomp.bsky.social•79 days ago

It's why I no longer dream of a pnw coast home.

thomp.bsky.social•80 days ago

I used to dream about winning the lotto and moving to the Oregon coast. This ruined it for me.

ianabarnes.bsky.social•80 days ago

Sold the deal for me!

calebakers.bsky.social•80 days ago

Jesus Christ

pcrritesgood.bsky.social•80 days ago

So I guess this will happen in the next four years and trump will ignore it so he can stay in power because California no longer exists.

renegadebeelady.bsky.social•80 days ago

I live in the PNW and have read this before.

oxygenismetal.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

pnwartist.bsky.social•80 days ago

We're waiting. I lived through Mt St Helens eruption and Nisqually quake, one of these days we'll get the big one 😬

samuraiko.bsky.social•80 days ago

I remember reading this when it first came out years ago.

sochi123.bsky.social•80 days ago

I'm at the point of hoping for an alien invasion and this is supposed to scare me?

leonotusleonurus.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes so well written that I think of that article every single time I am on the elevated portion of the Max train in Portland

nwtrailhound.bsky.social•79 days ago

Me- crossing the Marquam…

sdwolfpup.bsky.social•80 days ago

I drive across a very high bridge to work in Seattle and after this came out, every day for months I would plan what to do if an earthquake happened when I was in the middle of it.

jlaprade.bsky.social•80 days ago

Does it involve Sully miraculously landing you in the canal?

luckycolleen.bsky.social•80 days ago

I read this when it came out. It is indeed terrifying.

dragynwing.bsky.social•80 days ago

I can go off my anxiety meds as long as I avoid this article

ungraceful.bsky.social•79 days ago

TOO SOON
I'm still recovering from this morning's adrenaline explosion 💥 (I'm 60 miles from the epicenter & work in the tsunami hazard zone)
But thanks for the promise of additional terror

labsoftwaredev.bsky.social•80 days ago

That was fun. Just wait til Trump & the GOP Congress refuse to allocate funds for disaster relief. Oh boy.

turk1820.bsky.social•80 days ago

The part where they describe the immediate aftermath, and that you’d have about 15 minutes to run for your life before the Tsunami hit…

ne1970.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’m more afraid of my health insurance carrier than I am of any earthquake—and that comes from someone who grew up in SF and now lives in LA. (Not to mention Giants/Dodgers rivalry.)

peytonfarquhar.bsky.social•80 days ago

"Otisberg"?

kevinnelson84.bsky.social•80 days ago

My key takeaway from that is it will devastate everything up to I-5.

So glad I live a mile to the east of I-5!!!

jasonandrade.bsky.social•80 days ago

Who is Trump going to appoint as FEMA director because you just know this is going to happen under his watch?

🤷🏾

mccombgjm.bsky.social•80 days ago

Whoever it is will find a way to profit off it.

freedom4all.bsky.social•80 days ago

FEMA? You know he & Leon will gut FEMA & only help bright red states whether he guts FEMA or not.

deadlyspoons.bsky.social•80 days ago

At this very moment, 92-year-old “Sheriff” Joe Arpaio is sitting by a huge rotary phone, waiting for the call.

thatlinuxnerd.gay•79 days ago

📌

hunsicker.bsky.social•80 days ago

Imagine if this happens during the next four years. The Trump administration is going to tell us to go fuck ourselves. I live here, and I am utterly terrified at this prospect.

hamdangus.bsky.social•80 days ago

My plan to deal with this is to either die before it happens or die when it happens

metallichuck.bsky.social•80 days ago

Mine is to be extremely lucky!

hamdangus.bsky.social•80 days ago

PLEASE bury me with it
I just don’t need none of that Mad Max bullshit

theothercollin.bsky.social•80 days ago

Right? If the apocalypse ever comes, I'm heading straight to the nearest bar and getting drunk. I'm sure the top shelf liquor will be discounted.

cecilharr.bsky.social•80 days ago

Won't be on the top shelf, so that's fair.

rebrafsim.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

wendylu.bsky.social•80 days ago

i’m pretty sure she got a pulitzer for it

tierneyrex.bsky.social•80 days ago

I remember reading this. Real nightmare fuel.

nialmaloney.bsky.social•80 days ago

Living in Arcata for ten years , we learned that any earthquake less than a 6 is all, MEH

🤣

nialmaloney.bsky.social•80 days ago

Then I spent a summer in Bishop/Mammoth during a very active seismic period. I remember thinking, if it all blows up, this would be a pretty good place to die. 😂

nialmaloney.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh. I grew up in SoCal. Where earthquakes are also a regular thing…

I kind of miss them.

nialmaloney.bsky.social•80 days ago

My brother lives outside Hilo. Earthquakes are a regular thing.

That and lava. 😂

shanti2.bsky.social•80 days ago

It would be a beautiful place to die. But I would rather it last a lot longer

nialmaloney.bsky.social•80 days ago

Agreed. Maybe that’s why I like climbing volcanoes. They might not be there one day…

moneyshredder.bsky.social•80 days ago

please don't show this to my wife, it was hard enough the first time around

moneyshredder.bsky.social•80 days ago

just a couple months before our daughter was born, here in lovely, doomed Cascadia

urallsheep80.bsky.social•80 days ago

Fascinating AF

griffincaldwell.bsky.social•80 days ago

Agreed. Must read.

reganorwegian.bsky.social•80 days ago

PNW native here, we've been waiting for "The Big One" since before the Nisqually quake in 2001. We're all pretty content to be swallowed by the earth.

joshuamking.bsky.social•80 days ago

tbqh, this article was a contributing factor to my decision to move out of Seattle after 20 years.

(the 9 annual months of gloom was a bigger factor, but still)

globalinterest.bsky.social•80 days ago

Superb read

rockney.bsky.social•80 days ago

Been wondering if it was on the Cascadia fault. Just what we need, another major disaster. Unfortunately with that one it's not a matter of "If".

pre3chorded.bsky.social•80 days ago

My take is the epicenter of today's earthquake is such that it will increase stress on the Cascadia fault to the North

ignotumaliquis.bsky.social•80 days ago

As I told my brother, I have had this extremely dire premonition that sometime in the next 4 years the San Andreas is going to finally deliver the long-anticipated "Big One" and then, to make matters exponentially worse, Trump will withhold all federal disaster relief... because it's California.

lynnbrenner.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes! A superb piece of reporting and writing - spellbinding.

fchap.bsky.social•80 days ago

My husband recently agreed to do a business trip to the PNW next spring and I was like, “BUT I READ THIS PIECE IN THE NEW YORKER IN 2015!!”

dinel.net•80 days ago

TOO SOON KEN

beaverdale.bsky.social•79 days ago

I remember reading this when it was published. I love the Pacific Northwest but this piece faintly haunts me every time I visit.

marthawt.bsky.social•80 days ago

Since I live near the Juan de Fuca plate that just slipped, I am hoping we just bought some more time before The Big One.

reef71.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh, well, thanks for this!
Signed - none of us in California

jeanec.bsky.social•80 days ago

Very good article. Terrifying.

realroffs.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

yevkras.bsky.social•80 days ago

Is this now?

cbhs.bsky.social•80 days ago

Well that was scary

markpotts.bsky.social•80 days ago

My wife read that story on a flight to Seattle, and when we landed I had to talk her off the plane!

erinerex.bsky.social•80 days ago

That article has lived in my head rent-free since July 2015

betterpolo.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

runeeternal.bsky.social•80 days ago

Jesus, for us in the north of Canada we'd be buried under mountains

happyhexer.bsky.social•80 days ago

Live in the PNW, & I'm aware.

eltopo71.com•80 days ago

North America's worst disaster in history... didn't the celestial body that killed off the dinosaurs hit in North America, or is that something I misunderstood?

mattficke.bsky.social•80 days ago

Sort of debatable if North America existed at that time or if it was still considered Laurasia. It’s kind of on the cusp.

kaahnman.bsky.social•79 days ago

The younger dryas theory also has debris impacting the ice sheets about 14,000 years ago, wiping out much of North America.

kenwhite.bsky.social•80 days ago

Chicxulub is Central America, isn’t it?

dougwar40k.bsky.social•80 days ago

Central America is in North America, I told my child while she was studying fifth-grade geography, and was not believed then either.

dethveggie.bsky.social•80 days ago

Central America is part of North America, though.

macjustice.bsky.social•80 days ago

The Yellowstone supereruption happened *only* 2 million years ago, much more recent 🤣

amias.net•79 days ago

It was the Europeans

glendudek.bsky.social•80 days ago

"In recorded history", so I think that means in the last few thousand years at most. The dinosaur killer was long before recorded history.

redondodave.bsky.social•80 days ago

I remember that article. Major flooding and devastation

karmageddon.bsky.social•80 days ago

Bad timing.

mwhitler.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

sharonfern.bsky.social•80 days ago

Well, new fear unlocked.

cvilletgr.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yeah. I read it when it was first published and as an architect I am mentally cataloging the thousands of unreinforced masonry buildings that must be left over from pre-seismic design days and just hope that there's enough open area to hold fleeing crowds.

swanny221.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yeah pretty worrisome stuff living in Seattle. I had to do a fair amount of research into a CSZ earthquake for my master’s, and really just came to terms with the fact it might happen while I live here. Coast is fucked though if it happens (as is well-articulated in the piece).

nowwefindout.bsky.social•80 days ago

Ok…we didn’t have to do this today.

tychotithonus.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy•80 days ago

@kenwhite.bsky.social One of the most chilling passages (for me):

flyingnone.bsky.social•80 days ago

I lived in Ocean Shores WA for a decade. The tsunami warning system is nice. The roads out will be inundated by the tide, literally there is no way out.

hejholly.bsky.social•80 days ago

Also, since this article has been written earthquake sensors have been installed. Don't get me wrong, were all toast. But it's something 😬

drmattyg.com•80 days ago

Free version

https://archive.ph/6kBLM

borjita.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

jlaprade.bsky.social•80 days ago

Seismic probability also extends to not thinking about that on a daily basis. Way to ruin today’s probabilistic avoidance, Ken!

davidh2562.bsky.social•80 days ago

You're restoring my faith in the internet one tweet at a time. That was equal parts brilliant and terrifying.

Thank you.

kenwhite.bsky.social•80 days ago

It’s just amazing writing.

timsmaitaibar.bsky.social•80 days ago

I cannot endorse this enough. I keep a PDF of that piece and have read it several times. Shared it with a friend just yesterday. Brilliant work.

chicagojulie.bsky.social•80 days ago

LOVED this piece -- re-read it over the summer and think about it all the time

md4moms.bsky.social•80 days ago

Just wow. Well written and terrifying

drunemeton.bsky.social•80 days ago

That’s nothing! Just be around when the Yellowstone caldera ruptures. Then you’ll see a disaster…

rustyincbus.bsky.social•80 days ago

My Get Rich Quick* Scheme is to open an insurance agency in Portland and wait for that sweet, sweet federal bailout money.

*Centuries, maybe

dttrapo.bsky.social•80 days ago

Living in Oregon, this article lives rent free in my head.

giardinierapgh.bsky.social•80 days ago

That is pretty terrifying. Under Trump‘s last administration we had Covid. Is this going to be the next thing?

goatburgler.bsky.social•80 days ago

Terrifying, long-form journalism is my jawn.

vernald.bsky.social•80 days ago

This piece has stuck with me since it came out. So well written and terrifying.

profkraz.bsky.social•80 days ago

I remember reading this when it came out. Terrifying.

dirgeoverdrive.bsky.social•80 days ago

Iirc it was as poorly sourced as anything written about PNW from NY.

But we also always welcome one more reason to scare off newcomers.

dirgeoverdrive.bsky.social•80 days ago

https://www.wallyhood.org/2015/07/corrections-to-the-new-yorker-earthquake-story/#gsc.tab=0 a local response at the time

jazziknits.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’m in the area west of I-5 in Oregon that will be no more. I keep thinking I’ll put together an earthquake emergency kit…

hoodpolloi.bsky.social•80 days ago

This article is my Roman Empire.

jdefarge.bsky.social•80 days ago

former sister in law moved to texas after reading that. frying pan, fire?

wemap.bsky.social•80 days ago

"Let's live in the PNW! Should have relatively mild climate change effects."

Earth "time to twerk"

joopitr.bsky.social•80 days ago

Seven hundred miles?

anthonybeavs1998.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oregonian here. Bring it on!

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

I'm from Seattle so I put a bottle of liquor in my earthquake kit after reading this article.

odinsleftnut.bsky.social•80 days ago

Don't forget our active volcanoes.

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

Always take visitors on a drive over one of our floating bridges, point to My Rainier, and say "BOOM". Keeps the rent down a little.

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

God damn typo

anthonybeavs1998.bsky.social•80 days ago

BlueSky needs an edit button like threads.

anthonybeavs1998.bsky.social•80 days ago

The truth is there is nowhere safe on the planet from Mother Earth. She says it’s your time, it’s your time.

heybruce.bsky.social•80 days ago

Absolutely. And it's way prettier in the PNW than anywhere/everywhere else in the States so it's the fate we accept.

ohiolib.bsky.social•79 days ago

The biggest crises hit during Trump terms. This one wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

zeepetals.bsky.social•80 days ago

Y’know, she won a Pulitzer for this. I think a couple of things have been updated over the years, but I still send it to friends.

One of the more memorable stories from the piece: they were able to calculate the exact date and time of a 1700 Oregon earthquake based on Japanese tsunami records.

jjmplsmn.bsky.social•80 days ago

So good. You can listen to the article too.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone is terrifying.

mrsdianek.bsky.social•80 days ago

Gee. Thanks, I think.

arkanjil.bsky.social•80 days ago

Well, now you can just rock me to sleep….

bobcalder.bsky.social•79 days ago

You don't hang out with enough scientists. They been running simulations on it for ages.

communitycafe.bsky.social•80 days ago

❗️My son sent this to me when I was living in the Puget Sound / San Juan Islands area of Washington State. Just seeing the article again brings heightened anxiety. Horrifying.

(Great journalism.)

madammimm.bsky.social•80 days ago

We live with monumental dangers every day. The good thing is the public is oblivious, even though the information and signs are all there in their faces. Its disheartening. All we can do is ensure our safety in every way possible. The more hands that help the better.

imnotgeddylee.bsky.social•80 days ago

Volcanoes, Tsunamis, Earthquakes... At least Jeff Bezos is no longer a threat to Seattle. (Sorry Miami.)

paulnapavalley.bsky.social•80 days ago

Ugh. Not Cascadia again...

monsterfriend.bsky.social•80 days ago

Another really good piece about the Pacific Northwest “big one” is Johanna Wagstaffe’s podcast Fault Lines. She is a meterologist for CBC and also a seismologist.

beaudrym.bsky.social•80 days ago

Uhg, paywalled.

dyepurrdhon.bsky.social•68 days ago

Well that is very sobering prediction. Just wow.

gofurther.bsky.social•79 days ago

📌

drgeophysics.bsky.social•80 days ago

Preparation, mitigation and motivation. I’m glad they removed the double decker freeways in Seattle.

macjustice.bsky.social•80 days ago

I-5 still has a double decker bridge right through the middle of the city. Removing the Viaduct was table stakes.

drgeophysics.bsky.social•79 days ago

Oh dear. That’s not good.

charlottethomas.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh yes, it still haunts me! Such a great piece. I m so scared of going back to California.

madmansjw.bsky.social•80 days ago

As someone who works in Oregon Public Health and is in contact with Emergency Preparedness and the National guard, I can report that the Cascadia event is never far from our minds.

meredithswalker.bsky.social•80 days ago

The article haunts me everytime I visit my inlaws near Bellingham.

auscandoc.bsky.social•80 days ago

Every time we venture into the lower mainland of BC.

midnightplat.bsky.social•80 days ago

But some guy who took a break from his incessantly reposting of takes on current events account told me my musing over the vagaries of the tsunami alert were out of line and I should be fine.

lightwraith.bsky.social•79 days ago

thanks a bunch

mrslower.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

scriban.bsky.social•80 days ago

*extremely Puget Sound lowlands voice*

hahah that's fun thanks ken i love it when we all drag this bad boy out

danellis401.bsky.social•79 days ago

📌

jackhealy.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yep, I live on an Island near Seattle and am in complete and utter denial about this...

spacemonkeygleek.bsky.social•80 days ago

Welp, we don’t get tornadoes or hurricanes of note, so coin toss and pick yer poison ☠️ 🌪️

tomlevenson.bsky.social•80 days ago

That lede is something I teach every year to beginning science writing students.

shanti2.bsky.social•80 days ago

I remember reading this when it first came out. The only good thing I can think of is that I now live east of Sacramento

rnpvjeff.bsky.social•80 days ago

It’s amazing.

nharned.bsky.social•80 days ago

Well. That was terrifying.

babbybryan.bsky.social•80 days ago

Wow thanks a lot for waiting to post this, after I made the decision to leave relatively safe Central Oregon for the beautiful Vancouver Island. Why didn't you share this sooner? 😁

dragynwing.bsky.social•80 days ago

Still better off there tbh

Need a roomie? 😂

yrrej1.bsky.social•80 days ago

I would just say "a natural occurrence". Only disastrous from a human perspective. We are the only species that worries about these things.

yeroc.bsky.social•80 days ago

Anyone got a gift link they would kindly share?

equinoxthree.bsky.social•80 days ago

not a gift link - this is from https://archive.ph

https://archive.ph/6kBLM

hoodpolloi.bsky.social•80 days ago

no paywall for me

auscandoc.bsky.social•80 days ago

When I click on the provided link I get the full article (so not sure how to gift you a link from there sorry) . Another way is the get it through the Libby app. https://share.libbyapp.com/title/6381637

derende.bsky.social•80 days ago

The book ("Full Rip 9.0") was excellent.

clivingsbkk.bsky.social•80 days ago

Look up what happened when the New Madrid fault line threw up a couple earthquakes in a row in the winter of 1811-12. Terrifying, just like this peice on the Cascade fault is.

mike-lundquist.bsky.social•80 days ago

Thanks -- I needed a little cup of cheer today.

jfpgaffney.bsky.social•80 days ago

I had to stop reading it, I was so scared...

himboden.bsky.social•80 days ago

Terrifying. And came too late for my folks who left the Bay Area for Portland due to earthquake worries.

dinodoc.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh my.

jerry-con-angeles.bsky.social•80 days ago

I live in this region. It's a good article but the headline overstates it. There is a huge risk of a devastating earthquake. But the actual portion of Washington state that is vulnerable to tsunamis is relatively small and not densely populated.

shirleydunk.bsky.social•80 days ago

That's not true. Not only can a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake tsunami reach into Puget Sound, there are thrust faults that cross Puget Sound and have caused tsunamis in the past (with very little warning because they are so close to land).

jerry-con-angeles.bsky.social•79 days ago

Yes and no. A tsunami from a mag 9 earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone would inundate areas near the strait of Juan de fuca, but would only be about 4 feet in Seattle. Not trivial for sure, and you’re right about other faults under the Sound itself.

https://wsg.washington.edu/could-a-tsunami-hit-puget-sound/

shirleydunk.bsky.social•79 days ago

But Seattle isn't the only "densely populated" place in Washington. You've got places like Everett, Bellingham, Kingston, Port Angeles, etc. If the refineries at Anacortes are swamped, we could be without fuel for a long time. Even 4 feet is going to be pretty dicey for low lying areas.

jerry-con-angeles.bsky.social•79 days ago

4 feet is equivalent to a modest storm surge in Florida, where the terrain is more vulnerable than here. And note that this is projected for a magnitude 9 quake, which is at the high end of the expectations. I agree though that we need to do MUCH more to prepare for it.

sheenemywithin.bsky.social•80 days ago

I live in Seattle and never think about “the big one”. If it comes, and is of the magnitude they predict, most of us on the coast won’t survive, so why worry about it?
I’ve been hearing about it for 65 years. 🤗🎄

notthatkevinsmith.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes, totally scary to live in WA. Do yourself a favor and don't move here. I can literally see a volcano from my front yard that I also never see because it rains 24/7/365.25

thatssoandrew.bsky.social•79 days ago

That was incredible. 100% terrifying and 100% well-written

thatsdrstimpy2u.bsky.social•80 days ago

My motto: stay east of I-5.

jlaprade.bsky.social•80 days ago

You mean like… Wedgwood?

dragynwing.bsky.social•80 days ago

Lol fuck no. That way lies madness.

pndrp.bsky.social•80 days ago

Living near the New Madrid fault all I can say is, “What, me worry?”

tdnk.bsky.social•80 days ago

I saw this post and then had to confirm it was the same article I'd read years ago. Turns out that it was! Still resonates with me.

gtconway.bsky.social•80 days ago

I love how you’re always so cheery, Ken

korgel.bsky.social•80 days ago

Ken not so secretly yearns for the sweet embrace of the rupture.

tifosiotaku.bsky.social•80 days ago

Learn to swim, see you on the way, in Arizona Bay.

downontheupside.bsky.social•80 days ago

Don't worry, Trump will protect us.

jposco.bsky.social•80 days ago

I originally read this not long after it was published. I was 7.5 months pregnant (with my first), and in SF for a week for work. I became absolutely *convinced* the big one would hit and I’d either die or be trapped (and then die) inside the big hotel or giant office building. I was a WRECK 🫠

boopidooo.bsky.social•80 days ago

I live in Oregon and was pregnant and had a 1-year-old when this came out. It absolutely, obsessively, and deeply terrified me in such a way that only a pregnant or freshly postpartum brain can manage.

jposco.bsky.social•79 days ago

I feel so seen ❤️‍🩹

tifosiotaku.bsky.social•80 days ago

https://youtu.be/jpninPNXHWg?si=TrXaKFW_lXFj5Uq2

patricialovesbooks.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yeah, great Christmas gift to all of us in this area.

abr.bsky.social•79 days ago

Yikes.

deductive202.bsky.social•80 days ago

tl:dr
Kathryn Schulz must have been paid 💰 by the word..

Being from Pacific Northwest I've known of Cascadia fault all my life.
I remember the 1964 Alaska earthquake quite well, aunt had motel in Crescent City Calif heavily damaged by the tsunami that earthquake generated..

ramonagu.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

toowoke2joke.on.computer•80 days ago

This reminds me, I have to update my list of where my neighbors keep their emergency supplies.

jakwilde.bsky.social•80 days ago

Democrats and their damn weather machine

emilyrose.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’m not anywhere near the coast, but got the alert nonetheless, so I’m trying to resist the temptation to disregard this helpful piece of advice from the National Weather Service.

mikestemmle.bsky.social•80 days ago

Otisberg?

nametoolong.bsky.social•80 days ago

But wait, it gets worse!

The Cascadia subduction zone is ~250 miles from Hanford... the world's first nuclear weapons enrichment facility... which houses mass quantities of high-level radioactive waste and is falling down on its own!

At least it's not in the tsunami zone.

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