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5.9 magnitude Gulf of Alaska earthquake rocks Yukoners again

It follows a 5.7 magnitude earthquake June 4, at almost exactly the same time of day, in same area.

An earthquake with a magnitude 5.9 about 150 kilometres southwest of Haines, Alaska woke up many people in Whitehorse at 4:54 MT this morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Many Yukoners got a similar wake-up when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck about 73 kilometres southwest of Haines at almost exactly the same time of day on June 4.

That event was followed by aftershocks.

The U.S. Geological Survey warns on its website that the same thing could happen this time.

Several people went on Twitter to record their observations.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/5-9-magnitude-gulf-of-alaska-earthquake-rocks-yukoners-again-1.2717780

Engineers want to help mitigate B.C.’s seismic risk

Ann English, CEO and registrar at the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. (APEGBC), says her association can help British Columbia prepare for a catastrophic earthquake when The Big One hits the province.

English said Emergency Management B.C. (EMBC), which is developing a provincial earthquake preparedness plan, should be put to use The Seismic Mitigation Program for B.C. Schools, which was created 10 years ago by APEGBC, the Ministry of Education and the University of B.C.

“APEGBC will recommend that the B.C. government apply the school seismic mitigation model to all public buildings and critical economic infrastructure in the province,” English said.

“Adopting the application of common risk evaluation guidelines will allow all levels of government and the private sector to better organize and target limited resources.”

English said that APEGBC also recommends that the core operations of government be included in the evaluation.

“If, for example, an earthquake were to hit lower Vancouver Island while the legislature was in session, the damage to B.C.’s Parliament buildings could have severe consequences on the operation of government in an emergency,” she said.

APEGBC is participating in the B.C. government’s earthquake consultation process, which is part of the preparedness plan, through the Earthquake Review Board.

“We’re currently discussing with EMBC the ways in which APEGBC could support efforts to improve public safety related to earthquakes,” English said.

“If adopted for public buildings, the Seismic Retrofit Guidelines would need to be adapted for use with other building types. They are currently intended solely for use in the seismic retrofitting of schools.”

The origins of the school seismic upgrade program date back to 2004, when the Ministry of Education engaged APEGBC and UBC’s Earthquake Engineering Research Institute in a two-pronged mission:

To conduct a comprehensive update of how B.C. schools can be expected to perform in a major earthquake and to upgrade the technical guidelines for seismic retrofits.

The program that resulted from the collaboration contains assessment tools and procedures for engineers to determine how different sections of school buildings in different parts of B.C.’s seismic zones will withstand different types of earthquakes.

It also has technical guidelines for engineers to follow when planning school retrofits, and access to support from APEGBC’s technical review committee.

In addition, a data analyzer gives engineers access to more than eight million sets of seismic retrofit analysis to help them in the assessment and retrofit design of school structures.

“Because of the mitigation program, B.C. has a smart, science-based approach to protect our children in an earthquake, allowing government to efficiently target resources where they’re most needed,” English said.

APEGBC made its suggestions to the government following a March 2014 report by B.C.’s auditor general Russ Jones, which said EMBC wasn’t prepared for a catastrophic earthquake.

In reply to the report, EMBC has started working on a long-term earthquake response plan, a province-wide consultation on earthquake preparedness and a public education campaign.

EMBC spokesman Jeff Groot said the agency is planning to develop an immediate earthquake response plan by the end of March 2015, a sustained response plan by the end of March 2016 and long-term recovery plan by the end of March 2017.

Consultation chairman Henry Renteria, the former director of California’s Office of Emergency Services, has been holding community consultations around the province.

Renteria is meeting with more than a dozen communities in B.C., including Chilliwack, Metro Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Courtenay, Port McNeil, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Queen Charlotte Village on Haida Gwaii and Kelowna.

Meetings started May 29 in Kelowna and continue until the end of July.

The consultations will wrap up with a report to government by the end of 2014.

English said the threat of an earthquake in B.C. is not hypothetical.

“The question is not if a significant earthquake will hit, but when,” she said

“Since 1872, nine earthquakes greater than magnitude 6.0 have shaken our region, most recently near Haida Gwaii in 2012.”

English said the only question is when our luck runs out and a big earthquake hits a populated area.

“As the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that shook Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011 shows, when such an earthquake hits, the result is significant damage,” she said.

The Christchurch earthquake damaged more than 10,000 homes, destroyed 7,500 more, and resulted in the demolition of 1,400 buildings.

The total loss: more than $30 billion or 10 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP.

“That was in a city the size of Victoria,” English said.

“Imagine the economic impact if a similar-sized earthquake hit Metro Vancouver.”

Source: http://www.journalofcommerce.com/Associations/News/2014/7/Engineers-want-to-help-mitigate-BCs-seismic-risk-1000469W/

Preparing for the Big One never ends

If there were a catastrophic earthquake this week, is B.C. prepared for it? The question was put point-blank to the director of Emergency Management B.C. on Wednesday during a committee meeting, and the answer was: “No, we are not.”

And with full candour, Pat Quealey’s more extensive reply was that B.C. will never be fully prepared. The catastrophic damage from an offthe-charts quake would overwhelm any jurisdiction that sustains it. That premise is proven every time one strikes.

The concept of preparing for the Big One is a never-ending road, and you never get to the destination where readiness can be declared.

Quealey, who has been on the job as an assistant deputy minister for four months, told MLAs that preparing for catastrophe is ongoing. “There will never be that end state of preparedness where I will be able to answer your questions and say: ‘Yes, we are.’ “The idea is to continue planning and modelling for resiliency, so that when a portion of the province is overwhelmed by catastrophe, the systems can be adaptive and bounce back.

“Next year, I will not categorically tell you that we are prepared, but I will say that we will be better prepared than we are today,” said Quealey.

His appearance stemmed from the auditor general’s report on earthquake readiness last

March that condemned the state of preparation. A similar audit 17 years earlier produced dozens of recommendations, but not much came of any of them. Despite reassuring news releases over the years, the audit found B.C. is not ready for a big quake and its lack of preparedness has not been publicly disclosed. Emergency Management B.C. has so many other responsibilities that it runs earthquake readiness “off the side of the desk,” with a $6-million budget that has remained unchanged for several years.

What they are supposed to be planning for is the kind of earthquake that flattens buildings, alters river courses and topography and results in high numbers of casualties and evacuees. Responsibility for dealing with the aftermath response follows a hierarchy.

If individuals are overwhelmed, local governments are expected to respond. If they are overwhelmed, the province is legislated to act, and if the province needs help, it asks the federal government or other jurisdictions for aid.

But the audit found B.C.’s preparation for the role it legally has to play is inadequate. The analyses of risk and hazard are out of date. The plans don’t detail everything that has to happen. There’s little integration of planning, and the training exercises and public education programs are inadequate.

Most of the deficiencies were noted by EMBC itself, after a 7.7 earthquake off Haida Gwaii in October 2012.

Wednesday’s session was the first chance for Opposition MLAs to go over the report in detail, and the budgeting caught some attention.

NDP MLA David Eby said government priorities can be ranked by the money allocated.

By that measure, B.C. spent twice as much on the Bollywood awards show and $14 million on advertising the jobs plan. He noted the $6 million for earthquake readiness is the same amount as a different agenda item that occupied the committee earlier – the legal bills, covered by taxpayers, of the two corrupt aides who pleaded guilty in the B.C. Rail case.

Quealey came armed with a strategic plan to show MLAs. It was completed in the months following release of the audit findings. It’s been posted on the EMBC website and preparation for a catastrophic seismic event is listed as a priority. (There are actually 57 specific relevant potential hazards in B.C.) Just So You Know: The audit compared preparedness with Washington, Oregon and California and came to an interesting conclusion – they spend much more money there, but don’t believe they are prepared, either.

Direct comparisons are different because the structure of governments are different. But all the U.S. agencies that have roles are well-funded, yet they recently self-assessed themselves as not being prepared. When it comes to preparing readiness, the audit official said: “What B.C. should be doing is meeting its own expectations.”

Source: http://www.avtimes.net/preparing-for-the-big-one-never-ends-1.1195505

Alaska hit with 8.0 magnitude earthquake; no tsunami threat for coastal B.C.

An 8.0 earthquake off the Aleutian Islands triggered a tsunami warning for parts of Alaska this afternoon

The U.S.’s National Weather Service initially issued a warning for coastal areas of Alaska from Nikolski to Attu— but it’s has since been downgraded to a tsunami advisory.

The B.C. coast is outside of the tsunami advisory area.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says the earthquake is too deep, 114 kilometres down, to pose a tsunami threat along the Pacific Coast areas of Canada and U.S.

Dr. Brent Ward, earth scientist at Simon Fraser University, says it sounds like the earthquake occurred in the subduction plate — as opposed to along the subduction zone — which means there wouldn’t have been much seafloor movement.

“You need the seafloor movement to generate a tsunami,” Ward said. “When you move the seafloor — punching up from the bottom — it displaces the water and that’s what generates the wave.”

Still, an 8.0 quake is a very significant event, said Ward.

“Anything over 8.0 we call a great earthquake and we only get about 15 or so of those a year of that magnitude around the world” — Brent Ward, SFU

There have been no immediate reports of damage, but Natasha Ruppert, a seismologist with the Alaska Earthquake Center, told the Associated Press that the communities that would have suffered damage are also under tsunami warnings, so people may not have been able to get out and check for damage yet.

From the AP story: “The National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas between Nikolski to Attu, on the Aleutian Islands. A warning means significant inundation is possible or occurring. Residents are being warned to move inland toward higher ground.
A tsunami advisory was also issued for coastal areas stretching from Nikolski to Unimak Pass. An advisory means strong currents or dangerous waves are expected, but widespread inundation isn’t likely.”

CNN is reporting that the town of Adak evacuated its 150 residents to a shelter about 600 feet above sea level.

Google has a live epicenter map of the quake that was centred 24 kilometres southeast of Little Sitkin Island, Alaska.

Source: http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/06/23/alaska-hit-with-8-0-magnitude-earthquake/

2.4-magnitude earthquake hits outside Victoria

An earthquake just outside of Victoria, B.C. rattled homes in the Vancouver Island city Monday afternoon.

The 2.4-magnitude quake hit 11 kilometres northeast of the capital city around 1:40 p.m., according to the Pacific Geoscience Centre.

Affected residents quickly took to Twitter to report shaking windows and floors in their homes. Others said they could hear a rumbling noise when the quake hit.

There have been no reports of injuries or damage caused by the shaking.

Source: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/2-4-magnitude-earthquake-hits-outside-victoria-1.1871607

Watch: SFU ’50s-style earthquake video wins major award

A 1950s-style, black and white, two-minute video about earthquake preparedness, starring Simon Fraser University mascot McFogg the Dog, has won a major award.

Drop, Cover and Hold On! has been awarded a 2013 Video Award in the public service announcement category by PR Daily, a communications news site.

The video was created jointly by the SFU Creative Services and Safety & Risk Services departments. The SFU video was up against submissions from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, and the University of Colorado, Health, Management.

See the video here: Drop, Cover, Hold on!

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Watch+style+earthquake+video+wins+major+award/9911363/story.html

The Big One – Examining the risk of an earthquake in the region

Erin Edwards – As a longtime resident of British Columbia, I feel as though I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I am grateful to call the west coast my home, but its picturesque landscapes have the subtle ability to make me forget about the natural hazards that are prominent to this area.

British Columbia sits on Canada’s most active earthquake zone, making the threat of a large seismic event in our lifetime a very real possibility, and one that all British Columbians should be prepared for.

Earthquakes are caused by the movement of the tectonic plates that comprise the Earth’s surface. There are three types of plate boundaries at play along the west coast of B.C.: convergent (plates move together), divergent (plates move apart) and transform (plates slide past each other). However, the boundary that has the most potential to cause what scientists have termed “The Big One” is a convergent boundary.

“The Big One” refers to a large megathrust earthquake that scientists predict will at sometime hit the southwest coast of B.C. A megathrust earthquake occurs along a subduction zone that is found at a convergent boundary, where tectonic plates collide and one is subducted underneath the other, sinking down into the Earth’s mantle.

Subduction generally occurs when an oceanic plate, which is comparatively dense, and a continental plate collide. It is along this type of subduction zone that the largest earthquakes in the world are found, usually measuring a magnitude 9.0 or greater on the Richter Scale. An example of this event would be the 9.0 earthquake that hit Japan in 2011.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) separates the Juan de Fuca plate from the North American plate, extending approximately 1,000 kilometres from Vancouver Island to California. The Juan de Fuca plate is moving towards the North American plate at a rate of two to five centimetres per year. As the plates meet, the Juan de Fuca descends below the North American, currently 45 kilometres deep beneath Victoria and 70 kilometres deep beneath Vancouver.

Tectonic plates do not slide past each other smoothly. Rather their movement is discontinuous and in many cases they lock together. There is comprehensive evidence showing that the Juan de Fuca and North American plates are currently locked, causing strain to build up within the Earth’s crust.

When the fault’s frictional strength is exceeded, these locked plates will snap loose, causing a megathrust earthquake to occur.

Although predicting an earthquake is next to impossible, scientists have gathered diverse evidence that has identified 13 megathrust events along the CSZ over the last 6,000 years, occurring anywhere from 300 to 800 years apart, with the most recent occurrence in 1700.

Although there is nothing we can do to stop or control these types of natural events from occurring, we can be prepared for them. Do you have your earthquake preparedness kit ready?

Source: http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/the-big-one/Content?oid=2552616