The Juan de Fuca Plate, one tectonic plate, slides beneath the North American Plate via the CSZ, a fault line off the west coast of North America that is almost 700 miles long.

It runs along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California from northern Vancouver Island in Canada to the southern portion of the US West Coast.

Scientists warn that a 100-foot super tsunami would destroy most of the West Coast if an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 to 9.0 were to occur today. This is because the coastline would drop by about eight feet in an instant.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a CSZ earthquake alone would kill 5,800 people, and the massive wave it would cause would kill an additional 8,000.

The global team, headed by Virginia Tech academics, also noted