"Doomsday Tsunami" will hit this part of the world: It will be devastating PHOTO

According to scientists, a 30-meter-high megatsunami would wipe out a large part of the West Coast of the United States of America, and it would be the result of an extremely strong earthquake in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

A colossal earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone, in the northwest Pacific Ocean, is almost certain by 2100, with a 37 percent chance of occurring any time in the next 50 years, new research has found.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a nearly 1,126-kilometer-long fault line that runs along the west coast of North America, where the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate subducts beneath the North American plate. This zone extends from the northern part of Vancouver Island in Canada, all the way to the southern half of the American West Coast, including the coasts of the federal states of Washington, Oregon and California.

If an earthquake measuring between eight and nine degrees on the Richter scale were to occur today, scientists warn that a megatsunami up to 30 meters high would wipe out a large part of the West Coast of the USA, because the coastline would drop by almost 2.5 meters at that moment, writes the British "Telegraph".

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that around 5,800 people would die from the Cascadia earthquake alone, and another 8,000 would die from the resulting megatsunami.

An international team of scientists, led by a research team from the Virginia Tech University, pointed out that these dark forecasts will only worsen over time, due to the rise in sea levels due to climate change, writes the Bulgarian portal "Epicenter".

"It will certainly be a very catastrophic event for the US. The tsunami will come – and it will be devastating," said Professor Tina Dura, lead author of the study.

By 2100, climate change is likely to raise sea levels by up to 60 centimeters. Unless another mega-earthquake occurs in the Cascadia zone by then, the consequences are likely to be even worse and the floods even more devastating than those currently predicted for 2025.

More than 2,000 schools and 100 key facilities along the West Coast are expected to be affected, potentially costing the country over $134 billion.

The new research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also predicts that the West Coast of the US will be drastically changed in the coming centuries.