This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The End of the American Dream under the title: As The Ring Of Fire Becomes More Active, People Living On The West Coast Should Be Preparing For Cataclysmic Natural Disasters

In recent months, we have seen a tremendous amount of seismic activity occur along the Ring of Fire.  Sizable earthquakes have been popping off like firecrackers, and volcanic activity has risen to very alarming levels.

If you doubt this, just check out the eruption map on volcanodiscovery.com.  As you can see from that map, volcanoes are erupting all around the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean.  Of course, this shouldn’t exactly shock any of us, because 75 percent of all of the active volcanoes in the world are located along the Ring of Fire…

Most people are shocked to learn that the Ring of Fire isn’t an actual “ring” you can see, but a massive horseshoe-shaped belt stretching over 40,000 kilometers around the Pacific Ocean. This region touches the coasts of North and South America, Asia, and Oceania.

It’s home to 75% of the world’s active volcanoes—over 450 in total. The numbers are staggering: about 90% of all earthquakes on Earth occur here each year.

For decades, the west coast of the United States has been one of the quietest stretches of the Ring of Fire.

But now that is changing.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a magnitude 5.2 earthquake near San Diego, and the region has been rattled by literally hundreds of small earthquakes within the past 7 days.

The good news is that we haven’t seen a cataclysmic West Coast earthquake yet, but one of these days, time will finally run out.

This week, we learned that a team of researchers has determined that a large enough earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone could cause the ground “to suddenly sink” in coastal areas of northern California, Oregon, and Washington state…

Researchers warn that a “megaquake” — an exceptionally large earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 or higher — along the Cascadia Subduction Zone could cause the ground in some areas to suddenly sink. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a fault line that stretches from Northern California to British Columbia. This abrupt sinking, known as “sudden coastal subsidence,” would immediately raise local sea levels, inundate floodplains and leave entire coastal communities dangerously exposed to flooding.

So how much could some of these coastal areas sink?

Well, we are being told that a magnitude 8.0 earthquake could cause the ground to fall by up to six and a half feet in just 30 minutes…

A 700-mile-long fault line that runs along the West Coast is overdue for a massive earthquake that scientists warn could sink parts of the US.

New research found that a 8.0 magnitude or higher quake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, combined with rising sea levels, would cause coastal land to sink up to 6.5 feet within 30 minutes of a major tremor.

Wow.

That would be quite dramatic.

The lead author of the study says that once this occurs, “all the sea level rise you expected by 2300 is going to happen in minutes”…

In such events, “all the sea level rise you expected by 2300 is going to happen in minutes,” Tina Dura, the study’s lead author and assistant professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech told the San Francisco Chronicle.

What do you think that would mean for the millions of people that live near the coast in northern California, Oregon and Washington state?

Needless to say, a lot of “oceanfront property” would suddenly be under the Pacific Ocean permanently.

I was curious, and so I asked Google AI if a similar thing could happen in southern California, and this is what I was told…

Yes, land east of the San Andreas Fault could experience significant subsidence, meaning the ground could sink by several feet, during a major earthquake. The San Andreas Fault is a strike-slip fault, where the Pacific Plate slides past the North American Plate. This movement can cause the ground to shift and drop, especially during earthquakes.

Because there have been so many earthquakes in southern California in 2025, there has been a lot of talk about “the Big One” recently.  For example, the following comes from an article that was posted by Newsweek earlier this year…

Seismologists are closely monitoring California’s fault lines as concerns grow about the possibility that the “Big One” could happen soon.

The “Big One” refers to a massive earthquake that could occur along the San Andreas Fault, one of the state’s most significant and active fault lines. Scientists predict that this earthquake could reach a magnitude of 7.8 or higher, causing widespread destruction across Southern California or the San Francisco Bay Area depending on the rupture location.

I am convinced that when “the Big One” arrives, it will be far larger than magnitude 7.8.  In my new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next”, I talk about a cataclysmic earthquake that will radically alter the geography of the California coast.  Once that apocalyptic quake occurs, you won’t want to be living anywhere in the state of California.

Of course the entire southern coast of Alaska also sits directly along the Ring of Fire, and there have been signs that Mount Spurr could erupt very soon.

In fact, Mount Spurr has been getting rattled by dozens of significant earthquakes in recent days…

Mount Spurr in Alaska has experienced 66 earthquakes in just one week, signaling increased instability around the volcano.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) released a report late last week detailing the heightened seismic activity, noting that an eruption cannot be ruled out.

If it erupts, it could send volcanic ash tens of thousands of feet into the air.

That would certainly cause quite a bit of chaos for all of the air traffic that comes through that region…

A massive cloud of ash billowing 50,000 feet into the air would force international hubs such as Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) and potentially Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) to shut down.

Halting all incoming and departing flights at these airports could have a ripple effect across the country, resulting in widespread delays and cancellations and even disrupting the global supply chain.

Hundreds of planes fly over Anchorage and Fairbanks per day, and it’s not just passenger flights that would be impacted. ANC is the fourth-busiest cargo airport in the world, with more than 8,000 cargo flights passing through each month.

Let us hope that Mount Spurr does not erupt any time soon.

But whether that happens or not, without a doubt our planet has entered a time of increasing instability.

On the other side of the world, scientists are telling us that the continent of Africa is slowly but surely dividing in half and a new ocean will eventually emerge…

Experts have long known that portions of the continent are separating by as much as 0.3 inches a year in some places. Volcanic and geologic evidence in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa indicates the existing oceans may one day spill into the growing rift, severing a small portion of the continent from the greater bulk of Africa, according to experts.

“The region encompassing the Afar Depression and Red Sea and Gulf of Aden spreading centers is thought to broadly be the final transition away from continental rifting to the development of true oceanic spreading in the eastern Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea,” scientists wrote in a 2024 study.

The giant space rock that we all live on is not as stable as most people think.

Tectonic plates are constantly shifting and moving, and scientists assure us that cataclysmic natural disasters are inevitable.

If you live on the west coast of the United States, you are living in one of the world’s worst danger zones, and I would encourage you to make preparations for what is coming while you still can.

Michael’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com, including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books, you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.