Is it true that scientists are predicting a really big earthquake will sink western California?
This often comes up when when people talk about earthquake activity along the Pacific coast of the United States. Seismologists have predicted that a massive scale (8.0 or higher on the Richter Scale) earthquake will shake the region sometime within the next 30 years or so. This is the so-called “Big One” that makes many Californians understandably nervous and inspires a variety of apocalyptic disaster speculations. But while the Big One would definitely wreak mass destruction, it would not sink part of California into the ocean, nor would it break the state off from the rest of the country. The idea comes from a misunderstanding of the seismic forces that cause earthquakes in the region. Powerful earthquakes occur frequently along the west coast of the United States because the region is near a boundary between two tectonic plates. If you’ve read
