Rare tsunami danger threatens San Diego coast, experts warn it could destroy businesses after being triggered by quakes
FAULT lines off the coast of California in San Diego may cause rare tsunamis that could destroy businesses in the harbor, it has emerged.
An earthquake with a magnitude higher than 7.0 on the Richter scale could create tsunami waves as high as four feet, geologists have warned.
This might not cause ultimate destruction, but it would damage boats and businesses in the harbor or one of San Diego’s bays.
Strike-slip faults that could cause such devastating tsunamis have been found along the coast of California, according to a in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
According to previous theories, only subduction zone faults could cause tsunamis, according to ABC News.
A subduction zone happens when one tectonic plate moves under another. When that happens in an earthquake, the ground either rises or falls suddenly.
But when it happens in an ocean a large amount of water is displaced, causing a tsunami.
Tectonic plates crash into each other or move alongside one another in the strike-slip faults found at the San Andreas or Rose Canyon fault in San Diego, according to ABC News.
Those types of earthquakes however were not believed to create tsunamis but the new report said that the 2018 earthquake and tsunami in Palu are proof that it might occur.
"For the people of San Diego, it shows us that we have the potential of having tsunami, located close to shore, rather than things that just come from 1000s of miles away," San Diego State University geology professor Pat Abbott told ABC News.
Only 11 tsunamis happened in San Diego over the past 100 years, most of which came from earthquakes that happened in Chile, Alaska, and Japan.
In March, and the US West Coast after a magnitude eight earthquake off the coast of New Zealand were canceled a few hours after being issued.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted the tsunami watch for the Hawaiian islands, the Emergency Management Agency at the time.
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A tsunami alert had been issued for American Samoa minutes after Hawaii, according to the US Emergency Alert .
The Oahu Emergency Management Twitter page said that the watch "means a tsunami may impact Hawaii."
Threats to , , , British Columbia and were also being reviewed.