Scientists reveal that a massive earthquake as destructive as the one that hit Japan could likely hit two locations in the United States.

Geophysicists reveal that the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a series of tectonic plates lying off the northwestern coast stretching from the northern tip of California to Canada, can trigger an earthquake as strong as a magnitude 9.0. The last time an earthquake shook the region was 300 years ago.

Heidi Houston, a seismologist based at the Earth & Space Sciences Department of the University of Washington, said that the Pacific Northwest Coast was still uninhabited during that time but it triggered a huge tsunami that reached Japan and wiped out coastal villages. Records in Japan revealed that the earthquake could be similar to the Cascadia Subduction Zone and could be as strong as a magnitude 9.0.

Using sedimentary deposits analysis in low-lying areas along the coast, paleoseismologists have found out that large tsunamis could hit the Northwest Pacific approximately every 500 years. In an interview with Life’s Little Mysteries, Houston revealed that as the last quake happened in 1700, another one could be triggered in the next 400 years.

Scientists cannot determine a more specific time frame than that. There are certain conditions that should prevail in an area for it to trigger a destructive earthquake but University of Texas based geophysicist Nathan Bangs said that it would be difficult to make a useful prediction.

Scientists say that a Magnitude 9.0 could also be triggered in Alaska, the most earthquake-prone state in the United States. The Aleutian Fault, which separates the Pacific from the North American plate, moved in the city of Anchorage in 1964 causing a 9.2-magnitude earthquake, the second largest recorded on a seismograph.

The San Andreas Fault, commonly recognized to be more destructive than the Cascadia Fault due to its closeness to several major coastal cities in California, does not have the capability to generate a Magnitude 9.0 earthquake. At the most, the strongest would be less than Magnitude 8.0, according to Houston.

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