The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a crack in the earth’s crust, roughly fifty kilometres offshore, running 1,100 kilometres from northern Vancouver Island to northern California. About every 500 years this fault generates a monster earthquake. There is roughly a thirty percent chance that it could happen again within the next fifty years. Or it could happen tonight. Without a doubt, the coming quake is one day closer today than it was yesterday.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is virtually identical to the offshore fault that wrecked Sumatra in 2004, and it will generate the same type of earthquake, a magnitude nine or higher. It will send crippling shockwaves across a far wider area than any of the California quakes you’ve ever heard about, slamming five cities at the same time: Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, Portland and Sacramento. Cascadia’s fault will wreck dozens of smaller towns and coastal villages -- and no one in these places will be able to call their neighbours for help.

Written by a journalist who has been following this story for twenty-five years, Cascadia’s Fault tells the tale of this devastating future earthquake and the tsunamis it will spawn.

JERRY THOMPSON has worked for more than thirty years as a writer, director and journalist in Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. He has also been a network news correspondent and a documentary film producer for such CBC programs as The National, The Journal and the fifth estate. His articles have appeared in Equinox, Reader’s Digest and Vancouver magazine. Thompson lives in Sechelt, B.C.

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“Seismological CSI, offering up one stunning revelation after another.” — The Globe and Mail

“[An] alarming geological exposé. . . [and a] fascinating scientific detective story. . . . A lucid, engrossing look at the Earth’s subtle dynamics—and a timely warning about their awesome power very close to home.” — Publishers Weekly

“Thompson excels when he explains the science.” — Vancouver Sun

“The most important political book to appear in Canada for many years. . . . Politically seismic. He has the evidence for an inevitable magnitude 9 mega-thrust quake somewhere off our coast. For up to five long minutes, it will shake Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and even Sacramento.” — TheTyee.ca

“A level-headed look at a potentially devastating natural disaster . . . fascinating.” — Booklist

“This book tells a compelling scientific story of discovery. But the book goes beyond the science and presents the case for society preparing for an event we are at this point are ill prepared for.” — Dan McShane, Engineering Geologist

“The book’s strongest point is the convincing presentation of the scientific arguments that deem Cascadia to be North America’s most dangerous tectonic zone, implying that the next catastrophic earthquake will be the largest megadisaster ever encountered on the new continent.” — Literary Review of Canada