Some of the world’s largest earthquakes and tsunamis have originated from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 1,127-kilometer (700-mile) stretch that runs from northern California up to British Columbia. Here, the Pacific Ocean floor is subducting under North America – and when the fault periodically locks and releases, it can unleash devastating megathrust earthquakes and record-breaking waves.Megathrust earthquakes are the most powerful on Earth and they arise from subduction zones, where one of Earth’s plates is slipping over another. When rock on a convergent plate boundary gets compressed and bent, it builds up elastic energy. When this gets too much, there is an abrupt release as the overriding plate slides up the fault.As the plate slips and releases, it generates enormous amounts of energy that goes out into the surrounding seawater. That energy displaces water as it rises to the sea surface, raising it above the normal surface level. It then comes crashing down thanks to gravity, sending the energy shooting out horizontally in the form of a tsunami.The resulting waves can travel over 804 kilometers per hour (500 miles per hour). If they’re out in the open ocean they may just disappear, but if close to land they can be incredibly deadly.This is because in shallow water something called wave shoaling occurs, where by the energy gets compressed, creating tsunami waves that are slower but much, much higher – sometimes rising to 30.5 meters (100 feet) tall. When these make ground, they can level buildings as they tear inland, and the debris and any humans caught up in the disaster are then at risk of being swept out as the water retreats again.A schematic cross section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows the ocean floor plate (light grey) moving under the North American continental plate.Image credit: U.S. Geological SurveyThe destructive power of megathrust faults like the Cascadia Subduction Zone means they’re of great interest to scientists, as when it comes to tsunamis, early detection is one of our best forms of defense. This was demonstrated in 2011 when the Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami overcame seawalls designed to defend against such a natural disaster, claiming over 18,000 lives and causing a significant nuclear accident as it disabled three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.In an effort to establish better warning systems for the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a new study used advanced geophysical instruments to provide the first comprehensive survey of the zone.All Cascadia residents should prepare to experience a powerful and potentially damaging subduction zone earthquake in their lifetimes.CREW“The models currently in use by public agencies were based on a limited set of old, low-quality 1980s-era data,” said research lead Suzanne Carbotte, a marine geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in a statement. “The megathrust has a much more complex geometry than previously assumed. The study provides a new framework for earthquake and tsunami hazard assessment.”One of the key findings centered around the segmentation of the fault, which is now thought to be made up of at least four sections that may be shielded from the movements of those surrounding them. This can help us to understand past events including the megathrust earthquake that happened in January 1700, a magnitude 9 event that created a tsunami that reached as far as Japan.Sub-seafloor map of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, showing depth of the fault between the eastward-moving Juan de Fuca place and the North American plate going from shallow depths (yellow/orange) to the deepest (blues/purples). The diagonal black lines show the segments of the zone. The wavy red line shows the seaward edge of rigid continental rocks that apparently cause the zone to break into these segments.Image credit: Modified from Carbotte et al., Science Advances, 2024The 1700 megathrust earthquake is considered to be one of the largest in North America’s history, and we’ve long wondered if it involved the entire fault or just a segment. According to the Cascadian Region Earthquake Workgroup, (CREW) the best available evidence suggests such an event likely occurs every 500 to 600 years, but they can be as frequent as 100 to 300 years, “meaning, all Cascadia residents should prepare to experience a powerful and potentially damaging subduction zone earthquake in their lifetimes.”Understanding the megathrust earthquake and tsunami threat potential of the Cascadia Subduction Zone is “still a work in progress” for the team behind this latest research, but as we learn more about this complex feature of North America’s geologic makeup, it’s hoped we can better prepare for future natural disasters.The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

The United States Coast Guard recently intercepted multiple U.S.-bound vessels carrying more than 300 attempted illegal aliens, according to a Monday press release.The Coast Guard reported that it transferred 109 individuals back to the Bahamas and 196 individuals back to Haiti on Sunday and Monday after the groups attempted to enter the U.S. illegally.'Don't take to the sea and risk your life just to be sent back.'The interception, executed as part of Operation Vigilant Sentry, occurred last week after multiple boats were discovered off the U.S. coast.The USCG reported that the groups were processed to determine their identity, provided with food, water, shelter, and medical attention, and then returned to the countries from which they had departed."The crews of Coast Guard Cutter Raymond Evans and Cutter Richard Etheridge transferred 109 people to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Sunday, following an interdiction near Anguilla Cay, Bahamas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations (CBP-AMO) aircrews notified Coast Guard Sector Key West watchstanders of a migrant venture near Anguilla Cay and crews diverted to interdict them," the Coast Guard's press release read."The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Thetis repatriated 196 people to Haiti, Monday, following two migrant voyage interdictions on June 5 and June 6. A CBP-AMO aircrew notified Coast Guard District Seven watchstanders, Wednesday, of a migrant venture north of Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Another CBP-AMO aircrew notified Coast Guard District Seven watchstanders, Thursday, of a migrant venture north of Île de la Tortue, Haiti. Crews diverted to interdict both vessels," the press release continued.Lt. Nick Fujimoto, Coast Guard District Seven enforcement officer, stated that recent migration attempts were "unlawful and extremely dangerous.""The OVS maritime border security mission is often equal parts law enforcement and humanitarian response, especially as we enter hurricane season and marine weather becomes more severe and unpredictable," Fujimoto added. "The Coast Guard urges any potential migrants considering the journey: Don't take to the sea and risk your life just to be sent back."Fujimoto encouraged individuals to "use the safe, orderly and lawful pathways available."Earlier this year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) dispatched additional state personnel to address a possible increase in illegal maritime migration attempts."For quite some time, the State of Florida has been dedicating significant resources to combat illegal vessels coming to Florida from countries such as Haiti," DeSantis announced in March. "No state has done more to supplement the (under-resourced) U.S. Coast Guard's interdiction efforts; we cannot have illegal aliens coming to Florida."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rushed to the safety of MSNBC after House Republicans released damning video footage of the former House speaker taken on Jan. 6, 2021.On Monday, the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee released new footage from Jan. 6 showing Pelosi, the then-House speaker, blame herself for not having National Guard soldiers at the Capitol. 'I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.'The video was taken by Pelosi's daughter Alexandra Pelosi.The videoThe video shows Pelosi speaking with her chief of staff Terri McCullough as she's being taken away from the Capitol in an SUV."We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there — and we should have," Pelosi said."This is ridiculous. You're gonna ask me in the middle of the thing, when they've already breached the inaugural stuff, 'Should we call the Capitol Police?' I mean, the National Guard. Why weren't the National Guard there to begin with?" Pelosi said.McCullough tried to explain that "they thought that they had sufficient resources" — but Pelosi just lashed out."It's not a question of how they had — they don't know," Pelosi interjected. "They clearly didn't know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more." — (@) Pelosi's reactionAfter the video's release, Pelosi appeared on MSNBC to accuse her critics of "revisionist history.""They're trying to do revisionist history on Jan. 6. We cannot let us be dragged into their, again, false impression of what happened that day," she said.Pelosi then blamed former President Donald Trump for not deploying the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan. 6. That statement, of course, sounds a bit like revisionist history because Pelosi blamed herself in the heat of the moment, as the new video shows. — (@) Pelosi's office, meanwhile, released a biting statement."Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed again and again that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination on January 6th," a spokesperson for her office said.The statement added:As the footage in its entirety plainly shows, Speaker Pelosi sprang into action in response to the attack on the Capitol — mobilizing the defense of the Capitol, urging the Administration to deploy the National Guard and coordinating the continuity of government. Cherry-picked, out-of-context clips do not change the fact that the Speaker of the House is not in charge of the security of the Capitol Complex — on January 6th or any other day of the week. Three years later, House Republicans are still attempting to whitewash the deadly insurrection.What's the big deal?The footage is significant not only because of Pelosi's admission, but because the Jan. 6 committee never released it. Why they chose to keep the footage hidden remains unknown.In fact, the only reason the footage is now seeing the light of day is because House Republicans requested it from HBO, according to Politico.Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee, said the footage "directly contradicts" Pelosi's narrative about Jan. 6."Pelosi’s J6 Select Committee spent taxpayer’s money chasing false political narratives and using Hollywood producers for their ‘investigation.’ Her admission of responsibility directly contradicts their own narrative," he said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Despite President Joe Biden's sense that white supremacy is the "most dangerous terrorist threat," his administration is lifting the ban on arming a Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazism since its inception whose current members now reject accusations of extremism. In June 2015, the U.S. Congress unanimously approved an amendment to the Pentagon budget prohibiting American funds under the Pentagon Appropriations Act from being used to provide arms, training, or other assistance to Ukraine's 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade, then called the Azov Battalion. Former Michigan Rep. John Conyers (D) told his fellow lawmakers that the "neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia" group founded by Ukrainian politician Andriy Biletsky had been characterized by Foreign Policy as "openly neo-Nazi" and "fascist." Biletsky, who headed the neo-Nazi groups Social-National Assembly and Patriots of Ukraine, was less than subtle about the nature of his variety of national socialism, having reportedly: criticized "Negro-love" and the "blackening" of Ukraine; reminisced about Adolf Hitler as a military leader; denied the Holocaust ever happened; defended paramilitary Nazi collaborators in his college thesis; and adopted for his militia a symbol closely resembling the Nazi Wolfsangel. 'These groups run counter to American values, and once the fighting ends, they pose a significant threat to the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian people.' Years after his release from prison and months after the Russian invasion in 2022, Biletsky said, "We don't identify ourselves with the Nazi ideology." "Numerous other news organizations, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Associated Press have corroborated the dominance of white supremacist and anti-Semitic views within the group," said Conyers. "These groups run counter to American values, and once the fighting ends, they pose a significant threat to the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian people," continued the Democrat. "As we have seen many times, most notably within the Mujahedin in Afghanistan, these groups will not lay down their arms once the conflict is over. They will turn their arms against their own people in order to enforce their hateful views." The same year Azov was slapped with an American arms ban, it was absorbed into the Ukrainian National Guard by which time its political and military wings had formally separated. Although the Pentagon successfully lobbied the House Defense Appropriations Committee to drop the amendment from the following year's defense budget, the amendment returned to appropriations bills in the years since. The U.S. State Department apparently also prohibited the provision of the Azov Brigade with training or American weapons. That is all set to change if it has not already. After years of urging and the publication of Azov commander Denys Prokopenko's demands to American officials in the pages of Ukrainska Pravda, the Biden State Department confirmed to the Washington Post Monday that the Biden administration has cleared the Azov Brigade to receive American weapons. The Post highlighted that the timing of the announcement comes just as "Kyiv starts the summer fighting season." "After thorough review, Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade passed Leahy vetting as carried out by the U.S. Department of State," said the State Department. The "Leahy law," named after former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), concerns two laws prohibiting the U.S. government from using taxpayer dollars to assist foreign militants "where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights (GVHR). One statutory provision applies to the State Department and the other applies to the Department of Defense." In the case of the Azov Brigade, the Biden administration maintains there is no such evidence of GVHR, contrary to what Russia has alleged on various occasions. Russia's Supreme Court declared the Azov Brigade a terrorist organization in 2022. 'This is a new page in the history of our unit.' The State Department did not inform the Post whether the ban had been lifted and if weapons had already reached Azov militants, which apparently now have Jewish-Ukrainian soldiers among their ranks. The Azov Brigade said in a statement, "We are grateful to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Command of the National Guard of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States of America, and everyone who contributed to successfully passing vetting." "Eligibility for US assistance will not only increase Azov's combat effectiveness, but, most importantly, will help save the lives and health of the brigade's personnel," continued the statement. "This is a new page in the history of our unit. Azov is becoming more professional and more effective in defending Ukraine against the invaders." The Associated Press reported that current members of the brigade reject the suggestion that they're extremists or linked to "far-right movements." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

While Sen. John Fetterman has a history of gaffes almost as long as Joe Biden’s, he’s becoming more coherent by the day. In a recent appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the Democrat from Pennsylvania stunned the crowd when he dropped his party’s talking points and did what Democrats rarely ever do: make sense. “I didn’t leave the label, it left me,” Fetterman told Maher regarding where he stands politically. “After what happened on October 7, I really knew that that whole progressive stack would be blasted apart.” Fetterman went on to say that he “decided early on” that the right side of the Israel-Hamas war would be Israel, though he knew Democrats as a whole would “continue to peel away and kind of walk away from standing with Israel.” “How do you explain that?” Maher asked Fetterman. “If you can, that the people who consider themselves the most liberal have abandoned Israel, which was always a liberal darling, for the people, a terrorist organization, the people who outwardly say they want a genocide, who outwardly are the one side of this who is against the two-state solution.” “Some of the most progressive and left parts of the Democratic Party are standing, you know, for the kind of side that have kinds of organizations like Hamas, or these kind of nations that there are no rights for women, and they certainly don’t embrace the LGBTQ kinds of lifestyle,” Fetterman said. Fetterman then explained that even in Philadelphia, Queers for Palestine blocked the Pride parade. “I never saw that on the bingo card,” he added, as the crowd — and Maher — erupted in laughter. While Dave Rubin knows that none of what Fetterman said is shocking to those who already believed it, he is shocked that a Democrat said it. “It is good that a Democrat, who, as Bill is saying, is sort of an old school Democrat, is saying the progressives really are bananas now.” Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Microsoft and Xbox were dragged through the mud after revealing a reboot of their beloved Perfect Dark franchise that featured a very different looking main character.The original game was released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000 as a spiritual follow-up to the massively successful James Bond Goldeneye game that sold more than eight million copies.The original Perfect Dark, which sold a reported 3.2 million copies, featured one of the most iconic female protagonists in video game history, Joanna Dark.After years of development, Microsoft, Xbox, and their studio decided to reboot the franchise and revealed the never-before-seen gameplay during a 2024 showcase.What fans saw was a far more androgynous-looking and far less feminine-looking lead character. Their reactions were less than positive."Perfect Dark transforms you into the ultimate secret agent. Joanna Dark's perfectly symmetrical, masculine jawline makes her the ideal candidate for disguising herself as a man on the most dangerous missions. One day, she's Joanna; the next, she's Jonathan," an account with 20,000 followers wrote.The X post compared the female character's face with a strikingly similar male character."I will never forgive them for this, Joanna Dark gets the 'modern audience' treatment. The disrespect," wrote Melonie Mac, a gamer with 250,000 followers on X.'I think Joanna offers a lot of modern opportunities.'Many viewers have begun labeling woke character reboots as giving them the "modern audience" treatment, which has essentially meant taking once feminine characters and making them uglier or more masculine.In fact, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer revealed that this may have been the plan all the way back in 2021. During an interview with IGN, Spencer said that character offered an opportunity to focus on a female lead."I think it's awesome for us. We can focus on a female protagonist in our lineup. We don't have a lot of that in our first-party [lineup]," Spencer explained. "I think Joanna offers a lot of modern opportunities that I love to see the team kind of focusing on, having a strong protagonist," he added.The treatment of Joanna Dark, who was originally a feminine, Eastern European-looking woman, mirrors a pattern in the gaming industry among major studios that appears to be weeding out femininity in major characters.This was no more true than in the latest Star Wars game Outlaws, which was widely criticized for turning its character model into a product of "activism."'It's not enough to make the female models look plainer, they have to be 'buffed up' and made to look more like men.'Inversely, a South Korean developer behind the game Stellar Blade was accused of making his main character a sexist stereotype of a female, despite the character being a body scan of a real person."There is a trend to make older games more 'realistic' in updates and remakes. Unfortunately, they have taken this to mean that women should be dialed back from their stylized ideals, something they never seem to do to the male characters," said game designer Mark Kern."It even goes to an extreme. It's not enough to make the female models look plainer, they have to be 'buffed up' and made to look more like men. This is from the mistaken belief that in order to have equality, women must be painted to have male physical virtues, to be able to do everything a man can do in fighting or physical strength. But this is not the fantasy that female or male gamers want," he continued.The new Perfect Dark game is being developed by Crystal Dynamics, a studio known for giving the "modern audience" treatment to its own female hero, Lara Croft.As for the reason why studios are doing this, Kern added:"I believe there is a secondary reason for the remaking of so many female characters into male analogs, and it is the current war on defining what a woman is, and giving the trans community something more in between. Redefining the standards of feminine beauty to suit modern definitions of what a women can look like."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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