Killer wave looms

An earthquake on a well-known fault line could cause a 26-foot tsunami to hit the California coastline, a recent report finds.

A 60-page U.S. Geological Survey report concluded that a magnitude 8.0 earthquake or stronger along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (which runs from Northern California to Canada’s Vancouver Island) would threaten roughly 267,000 Californians living in coastal areas, according to The Associated Press. A further 169,000 Californians work in these “tsunami-inundation” zones, and that number could grow during certain times of the day on tourist beaches.

Earthquakes along the CSZ have created tsunamis seven times in the past 3,500 years, in intervals of 140 to 1,000 years. The last tsunami was created in 1700.