NEW YORK, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A long-feared monster earthquake off the U.S. states of California, Oregon and Washington could cause some coastal areas to sink by more than 6 feet, dramatically heightening the risk of flooding and radically reshaping the region with little to no warning, according to a new study.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that in an earthquake scenario with the highest level of subsidence, or land sink, the area at risk of flooding would expand by 116 square miles (about 186 km), a swath that's 2.5 times the size of San Francisco, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
