Experts have warned the Bay Area will experience an earthquake the likes of which have not been seen in decades in the next few years – with one town in particular at risk of collapsing in on itself during the prospective disaster.
Labeled the ‘Big One’ by wary seismologists, the catastrophic event is poised to strike within the next seven years, according to a report from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) – and could spell doom for residents of scenic Alameda.
The small city was once a peninsula, connected to Oakland by a small landmass that more than 100 years ago was dredged out to lengthen a shipping strait.
Since then, the town has existed as an island – while growing exponentially in size over the past century thanks to the addition of hundreds of acres of reclaimed land.
However, the reclamation effort took place in the early 1900s, leading scientists for years implore the town of roughly 76,000 to reanalyze its earthquake readiness.
Speaking to a Bay Area paper, the director of earthquake sciences for USGS said the city is at risk of collapsing in on itself when a quake does eventually strike – with Alameda poised to bear the brunt of the disaster.
