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Magnitude-6.7 quake hits near B.C. coast
by Barry Artiste | January 5, 2008 at 10:37 am | 1547 views | 6 comments | 27 recommendations
Certainly an experience for the residents of this small coastal town. It has been said that is a similar quake hit the vancouver area, low lying regions would be under 10 feet of water resulting in Surrey, BC becoming ocean front property.
A "strong" underwater earthquake occurred off the coast of B.C. early Saturday morning, registering a magnitude of 6.7.CTV.ca News Staff
The earthquake hit 135 miles (241 kilometres) southwest of Sandspit, Queen Charlotte Islands.
The quake, the second of two to strike within 30 minutes in the same area, hit at about 3:45 a.m. Pacific Standard Time Saturday, said Guy Urban of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.
The original quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.3, Urban told CTV Newsnet.
"We thought nothing of it, put out an information statement on it, and approximately 20 minutes later the larger quake came in with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7, and that was located almost in the same spot about 135 miles (241 kilometres) southwest of Sandspit, Queen Charlotte Islands."
Sandspit is southeast of Prince Rupert, B.C. on Moresby Island.
Urban said there is little or no chance of a tsunami occurring, but officials followed standard procedure and released a "tsunami information statement high" to make people aware that a quake had taken place.
"A damaging tsunami IS NOT expected along the California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska coasts," says the statement from the centre. "Some of these areas may experience non-damaging sea level changes. At coastal locations which have experienced strong ground shaking, local tsunamis are possible due to underwater landslides."
The underwater quake registering a magnitude of 6.7 could easily cause major damage were it to occur on land, Urban said.
"It would probably cause walls to crack and probably concrete foundations to tumble a little bit, so it could be fairly devastating. It's called a strong earthquake so it's large enough to cause some damage."
Urban said underwater earthquakes of 30 seconds or more have the potential to cause a tsunami.
"The general rule of thumb is if people are in or near the water when an earthquake occurs and it lasts for more than 30 seconds they should go to high ground because there's a possibility a tsunami could have been generated."
January 5, 2008 at 10:37 am by Barry Artiste, 1547 views, 6 comments
Crowd Power
Barry Artiste
Vancouver, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 10:47 on January 5th, 2008
It's good stuff.
at 11:19 on January 5th, 2008
Thanks Moon, Surrey could well be an ocean front city, as Lower than sea level Richmond and Delta are built on top of what was once a century of Vancouvers Garbage as our Dump and to make matters worse, the Garbage Dumps in which Richmond and Delta are built on are on top of a Leda Clay base which stretches as far as Abbotsford. Leda Clay is one of the most unstable foundations in which to build anything on as Leda Clay which shifts constantly when wet, and is pretty much a sea floor of dead organic materials. When dry hard as concrete, when wet, as soupy as it can be. Glad I live on top of Burnaby Mountain composed of Granite, relatively free of the effects of earthquakes and flooding.
at 10:57 on January 5th, 2008
Let's keep an eye open for further aftershocks- thanks for posting this.
at 12:55 on January 5th, 2008
Barry Artiste, you've convinced me you've done the work - it's authentic. I also think that you've been fair and thorough. I didn't get the sense that you were hiding your biases, or passing off other's work as your own. Or worse -- getting paid by those you cover -- so it's transparent and independent. I also think you deserve praise for being an eyewitness, and for your investigative efforts. Good stuff.
Hope all is well in BC. Keep watching the 2nd after shock could be worse. Lived in Alaska for 4 1/2 years... had a few
- reply
alawisiousat 03:32 on January 6th, 2008
I caught this first as a headline on Googe News which is my homepage, so before I post my comment I have a quick question. As a new member, with regard to headlines what is the protocal for using a headline like that when it's already been coined? I see that credit is given to CTV news on the story page, but on Google they post a small CTV.ca credit right under the headline - not so on NP.
Anyway, here's the comment I posted this morning on the Globe and Mails comment section on the same story:
First time commenter, here. Greetings from the wet coast. I checked in here to see what I could find in the way of follow-up on the latest thinking about the potential for a serious land-based earthquake, because the three online stories I checked including this one had nothing except the details of this one and what may have happened had this one been on land. I'm one who could use a little more attention paid to preparing for disaster, like many others I know. I don't think it has to be paranoia to be a concerned about disasters, earthquake or otherwise, nor does it have to be all-consuming. However, if I were someone with my own family living in the same dwelling, I would want to know at least the first couple of priorities or so, should something hit. I don't have an immediate family, but I have friends and neighbours who live in the same co-op as I. Interestingly, when I moved into this place 2 and a half years ago the first meeting I attended had on its agenda the report of someone who had researched what was needed in terms of emergency procedures for our members and the building. I believe it was part of some regulations we were to adhere to, including filiing of member contacts, escape routes etc. After that report which was rather well done, as I recall, nothing - nada - zippo, including from me. In a co-op, ours has 56 units with about 60 members, it's all of our responsibility for knowing what to do. So, I'll put this out there in hopes of hearing some helpful thoughts about what may be the first two or three priorities in the event of an earthquake or other disaster. Just to get things going, I'll post this link to our emergency preparedness program out here in BC, PEP: http://www.pep.gov.bc.ca/hazard_preparedness/Earthquake_Information.html . On the front page of their website they have listed all manner of disaster types with links to info. When I click on earthquake, the first thing listed is a pdf file about "drop, cover, hold".
at 04:54 on January 6th, 2008
Barry Artiste, Good stuff.