History Main / CaliforniaCollapse

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* At the end of ''{{WesternAnimation/Logorama}}'' a massive earthquake results in the entire city of Logos Angeles being flooded. The ending shot then shows that Baja California has broken off to form a Nike swoosh-shaped island.

Scientists have warned for some time that a superquake on the West Coast ("The Big One") is inevitable. All research points that there's enough pressure for it to happen any day it likes now, and there's a 70% chance that it won't wait more than 30 years. Many people have gotten the impression that California is one earthquake/nuclear explosion/meteor impact away from snapping off (neatly at the state line) and falling into the Pacific Ocean. In speculative fiction, don't be surprised if part or all of California has suffered this calamity, whether it's the focus of the work, part of [[NaturalDisasterCascade a cavalcade of worldwide natural disasters]], or just a throwaway reference. To writers who have HorribleHollywood in mind, it's good riddance if Los Angeles were to fall off the face of the earth. Or [[TheFundamentalist religious apocalypticists]] who see it as a [[SoiledCityOnAHill modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah]].

* In ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', a portion of the California coast has become separated from the mainland by a quake that flooded San Fernando Valley, and turned into a WretchedHive of a prison.

* In the Music/{{Tool}} song "[=Æ=]nema", the singer is ''praying'' for this to happen to Los Angeles, since the only way to fix it is to "flush it all away". It's inspired by the Creator/BillHicks "Arizona Bay" routine, which is directly referenced in the chorus. The album artwork features "before" and "after" maps that show most of California gone.

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* Creator/IsaacAsimov already discussed this trope on some of his non-fiction writings even back in [[The70s the 70s]] and why it was ArtisticLicenseGeology at best and scaremongering at worst.

-->I predict this hotel will be standing

-->And if California falls into the ocean

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation plays with it in [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-1238 SCP-1238]], a species of rock-eating fish that have created such a vast network of tunnels that much of northern California and the Pacific Northwest are just sinkholes waiting to happen. A big enough earthquake could cause a chain reaction where all of the tunnels collapse, resulting in the undermined area collapsing below sea level and inland areas being flooded, while leaving everything south of San Francisco alone.
* According to the forum RP ''Roleplay/ScaryNewsOutOfTokyo3'', this happened in the wake of [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Second Impact]] as a result of violent earthquakes. The remains of Los Angeles and San Francisco are archipelagoes, and several communities in the Mojave Desert are now only a few miles inland; Lancaster is described as a "thriving seaside community" in a news report.