The city of Corvallis sits on a fault line. Other areas of the mid-valley could, too.

But when the Big One hits, where the fault lines run really won't matter, according to information from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. As with the March 11 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan, everyone will be affected.

"The earthquake I'm talking about is a fault that sits 75 miles off our coast," said James Roddey, earth sciences information officer with DOGAMI. "It would rupture anywhere from 300 to 600 miles up the earthquake fault. You will see damage from Northern California up through British Columbia and everywhere west of the Cascades.

"It's not just Albany or Corvallis or Seattle or Portland; it's everything," he added. "Thirteen million people."

Brick and mortar buildings are the most vulnerable to large, Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes, Roddey said. Infrastructure won't hold up, either. Roads, bridges, sewers, communications, lines for water and electricity - "Pretty much everything we rely on in our everyday life will suffer some damage and take a while to come back."

Which means don't breathe easy if you happen to live east of the Cascades.