An earthquake at the southern end of Puget Sound caught the attention of a few people Saturday night, but no damage was reported.
The 3.5-magnitude quake, which began around 11:25 p.m., was centred about 15 kilometres northeast of Olympia, Washington and at a depth of 58 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
KCPQ said residents in Puyallup, Roy and Port Orchard reported feeling the quake.
Early Sunday morning, another small quake was reported well off the coast of Vancouver Island. The Earthquake Monitoring Service of Canada reported the 4.0-magintude quake, which began around 3 a.m., was more than 200 km west of Tofino, about 10 km below the surface.
A small earthquake has struck about 60 kilometres southwest of Queen Charlotte City in the Haida Gwaii islands.
There are no reports of injury or damage from the 4.7 magnitude temblor that struck shortly after 2 p.m. PT [September 28th, 2014].
Earthquakes Canada tweeted the quake and location at 2:05 p.m. PT.
Earthquakes Tsunamis put its depth at 19 kilometres.
Natural Resources Canada says the shaker occurred in a region where earthquakes are common because of the movement of several plates of the earth’s crust.
More than 100 magnitude 5.0 earthquakes or stronger have occurred off British Columbia in the last 70 years.
Two years ago, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, the second strongest earthquake ever recorded in Canada, struck the west coast of Haida Gwaii, causing no reported injuries and little damage.
Placing earthquake sensors in 50 schools is step one of a UBC engineer’s vision for a life-saving warning network
Ten, 20 or 30 seconds might not sound like a lot of time, but it could make a big difference when an earthquake hits.
A new earthquake early-warning system created by University of British Columbia engineers senses earthquakes before the ground starts shaking and triggers a warning alarm that could give people time to find shelter.
“When the shaking starts you tend to go into denial,” says Carlos Ventura, director of UBC’s Earthquake Engineering Research Facility. “You think it’s a truck going by, construction, or kids running around and you lose precious seconds that can make a difference between being safe and being injured.”
The civil engineering professor and his team are installing the earthquake early-warning systems in B.C. schools and training students, teachers and staff to react quickly when the alarm sounds.
How it works
The alert system consists of motion sensors or accelerometers buried two metres underground. They detect primary waves (P-waves), the quickest of the four types of shock waves typically generated by an earthquake. P-waves, which usually cause no damage, are followed by slower shear waves (S-waves) that shake the ground back and forth. It’s the S-waves that break windows and cause walls to collapse.
The earthquake-warning systems were installed at 50 elementary and secondary schools of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the Lower Mainland and soon researchers will hook them up to a central hub located in the UBC Earthquake Engineering Research Facility. The sensors send signals to the facility where software analyzes the waves to determine whether they indicate the beginning of a significant earthquake. If the epicentre is in the region, the system triggers an immediate alarm that is distributed to all the schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese.
Earthquake-prone areas in Japan, Mexico and the U.S. have implemented early-warning systems but Ventura’s method is somewhat different.
“We are using a regional approach,” he says. “Instead of putting one sensor in one location and relying only on that, we are putting two sensors per site at selected locations all around the Lower Mainland and eventually the province. If one or two sensors detect the P-waves, they will issue the alarm to the whole region. That is what’s unique about our system because we do not rely on only one sensor.”
Teaching students to duck and cover
After the earthquake warning systems are installed, Ventura and his team train teachers, students and staff to take cover under their desks or other safe areas when the alarm rings. They follow the duck, cover, and hold procedure and wait 60 seconds after the ground stops shaking to resurface.
Ventura saw the system at work during a pilot project at a school in White Rock.
“In less than five seconds, students are under their desks,” he says. “They stay under their desks for at least two minutes. This practice is essential to maintaining calm during an earthquake. Students are prepared and they know what to expect.”
A province-wide alert system
How much warning will schools get when an earthquake hits? It depends on how close they are to the epicentre; the closer they are, the less warning they get. One early-alert system in California detected the quake that hit the Bay Area last month 10 seconds in advance.
Ventura envisions a future where his warning system could give enough warning to let people do more than just duck and cover. Doctors could put down their scalpels, TransLink could stop the SkyTrain, and teachers would have enough time to shut off the gas in a chemistry lab.
For now the UBC-designed system is being piloted in 50 Lower Mainland schools. Once the system is bug-free, Ventura hopes to install sensors around the province. Plans are also in the works to install sensors on bridges, tunnels, and roads. Some sensors will be deployed off the west coast of Vancouver Island in a zone prone to earthquakes that could also alert islanders of a tsunami.
“This unique ability to enlist a network of stations, allowing them to communicate and confirm the measurements of an earthquake, vastly improves the reliability of the network and, ultimately, public safety.”
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island at 1:19 p.m. PT Tuesday, followed by a series of at least five aftershocks, but officials say no tsunami is expected.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service was the first to report the quake’s epicentre was approximately 150 kilometres northwest of Port Alice, on Vancouver Island, but said a tsunami was not expected.
The quake was initially rated 6.2 magnitude by the NOAA, but then downgraded to 6.0 by the USGS, while Natural Resources Canada rated the quake 6.1 magnitude.
NRC seismologist Alison Bird says there is no cause for concern because the quake was out in the ocean rather than underneath people.
“I would consider this to be a moderate earthquake. It doesn’t pose any threat to people. There is no tsunami expected. We haven’t even received any fault reports yet. It’s far enough away from communities that it really isn’t any worry,” said Bird.
Residents in Bella Bella, Port Alice and Port Hardy contacted by CBC News said they did not feel the quake or its aftershocks, but Bird says it is a reminder folks should take part in the provincewide Shakeout B.C. earthquake drill next month.
Aftershocks recorded
At least five aftershocks were reported in the same area including a 4.6 magnitude at 2:05 p.m, a 4.8 magnitude at 2:25 p.m., a 5.0 magnitude at 3:29., 4.2 magnitude at 4:07, and 5.9 magnitude at 5:23 p.m.
“The earthquakes had ‘strike-slip’ mechanisms which means the motion was mainly horizontal,” said CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe, who has a background in seismology.
“Here, two plates are sliding past each other, rather than one plate moving underneath another one. These quakes are likely connected to the Queen Charlotte fault rather than the Cascadia subduction zone, but this is a complicated section of West Coast tectonics. It’s possible these quakes are connected to last year’s October 2012 7.8 magnitude quake as well.”
The area of the ocean floor west and north of B.C., often referred to as the Pacific Ring of Fire, is known for its seismic activity.
On Tuesday evening, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck near the Izu Islands in southern Japan. Tremors were felt in Tokyo, but no damage was reported and no tsunami expected. The Japan quake was not connected to the B.C. quakes.
On Monday, a much smaller 3.9 magnitude earthquake registered approximately 119 kilometres southwest of Port Alice, according to Natural Resources Canada.
Farther to the northwest, a 7.0 quake last week shook near the coast of Adak, one of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
While there’s no cause for alarm for Vancouverites following the devastating earthquake that rocked the northern Bay Area of California early Sunday morning, it’s another reminder that it could happen here.
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck just before 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 24 near Napa, which is the biggest one to hit the region in the last 25 years. It sent approximately 90 people to hospital, ignited fires and casts tens of thousands of people into darkness.
But Brent Ward, SFU sciences professor, said there’s no evidence to suggest that earthquake could trigger one in B.C., but it’s an important reminder for people to plan for the big one due to hit the Lower Mainland in the future.
“It’s always a good wakeup call for people to think, to realize we are in an active earthquake zone,” he added.
Vancouver verges on the edge of two plates. The Juan de Fuca plate moves towards and under the North American plate, known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone. It could potentially bring a 9.0-magnitude earthquake from Vancouver Island, to Vancouver and stretch down as far as Seattle or Oregon, according to Ward.
The California quake was a result of pressure building up along the San Andreas Fault, and that same stress is happening to the plates in B.C. Eventually, it’s going to build up so much that the rocks will break and start an earthquake, Ward explained.
“It would look pretty similar to what happened in Japan,” he said. “There would be a lot of intense ground shaking over a very large area.
“It would be a very extensive, large magnitude disaster.”
According to the City of Vancouver, there’s a one in four chance a major earthquake will hit the region in the next 50 years.
If an earthquake did strike, Ward said it’s important for people to have a kit and backup plans.
“The chances of everybody in the family being together when the earthquake happens are so low,” he noted. “You have to have a way for people to get to places after the earthquake.”
What will you be doing before, and after, a large earthquake shakes your neighbourhood?
After a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck early Sunday morning in California’s northern Bay Area, B.C. authorities are hoping it will remind local residents that they should be preparing for such a calamity as well.
The California quake hit the wine country destinations of Napa and Sonoma the hardest. Gas lines broke, fires ignited and tens of thousands of residents were cut off from power, all prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency.
News of the quake, the biggest to hit the region since 1989’s Loma Prieta temblor — made especially memorable and horrific by the collapse of a double-decked section of Interstate 80 — will inevitably generate some anxiety for people living near other fault lines and seismic zones to the north.
In B.C., government agencies hope that worry can be channelled into preparation.
Hours before the North Bay quake struck, dozens of community-minded volunteers in Vancouver were getting ready for the Big One at a natural disaster response training session sponsored by the City of Vancouver.
On Saturday, at the staged natural disaster site, the volunteers helped coordinate the rescue of dummies from burning cars and actors from collapsed buildings.
The city is building a network of hyperlocal help called NEAT, which stands for Neighbourhood Emergency Assistance Team, and intends to have these trained volunteers able to carry out basic first aid and assist first responders with situational assessments.
VANCOUVER — Rubble, blood, bodies — all strewn around the Strathcona area of Vancouver, marking many West Coast residents’ greatest fear: the big earthquake.
But it hasn’t happened yet. Today, the victims are actors from the Vancouver Film School and their rescuers are volunteers from Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Emergency Assistance Team, or NEAT in this post-disaster exercise.
“They’re trained at the higher level than an average person. Once they’ve taken care of their home and their family, they would respond to one of the staging areas, and that’s what the situation is today,” Acting Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services Capt. Brian Bogdanovich told Global News.
The NEAT volunteers are concerned citizens, who have spent 18 hours training in disaster preparedness and response. They’ve had monthly classes on safety, first-aid, radio communications, fire extinguishers and incident command. Their training culminated in this realistic disaster scenario, complete with police dogs, damaged buildings and victims. Challenges ranged from caring for the victims, area reconnaissance to live fire and car accidents.
VFRS Special Operations Team, Heavy Rescue Team and the City of Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team also completed the drills, alongside the NEAT volunteers.
A 4.3 magnitude earthquake that struck near Rocky Mountain House Saturday morning left many wondering how and why this natural event could occur in landlocked Alberta. Turns out, they are fairly common in our province — we just don’t usually feel them.
The quake, which left some residents of Clearwater County without power for about two hours and forced a gas plant off-line as a precaution, is one of dozens of small earthquakes that occur in Alberta every year, Geololgical Survey of Canada research scientist Honn Kao said.
“Alberta is not technically free of earthquakes,” Kao said. “The distribution of earthquakes in Alberta is not uniform, but they tend to be much more frequent along the Alberta British Columbia border.”
Of the 86 minor earthquakes measured in Alberta so far this year, most of them happened near Jasper and Rocky Mountain House. This is because active tectonic plate movement beneath the earth’s surface builds the mountains, and the release of this force causes the earth to rumble. Over the years, these mostly innocuous temblors actually make our Rockies even more magnificent, raising their height anywhere between a couple of centimetres to a few metres depending on the size of the earthquake.
Most of Alberta’s earthquakes average a magnitude of less than three and aren’t felt unless you happen to be directly above the epicentre, the area on the Earth’s surface directly above where the earthquake occurred. Fatalities or property damage aren’t usually caused until a quake reaches a magnitude of 5.5 or six.
There were no injuries or structural damage reported from Saturday’s earthquake.
“The beauty about yesterday morning’s earthquake is that it’s big enough to feel it, but not big enough to cause significant damage,” Kao said.
Big earthquakes happen when a large amount of force accumulates in the tectonic plates over time and is released at once. But this is very rare in Alberta. Tectonic plates move only between two and four centimetres offshore of western B.C. each year — equivalent to the growth rate of your fingernail.
“Generally speaking, they are always small (in Alberta,)” Kao said. “If you compare to B.C., the chance of a big earthquake is definitely much smaller, there’s no doubt about that. But because the tectonic force is there, there’s always a risk.”
Research shows man-made activities can induce earthquakes, though debate still exists on the issue, Kao added. Damming and hydraulic fracturing used in the oil production process increase production but can also induce earthquakes, he said.
Despite the statistical rarity of a serious earthquake in Alberta, Kao said Saturday morning’s earthquake is a reminder that residents should do their best to prepare themselves for the possibility of a larger quake. This includes simple measures such as securing furniture and removing glass from high shelves.
“This is a perfect example for residents to realize they need to take this opportunity and be prepared just in case a damaging earthquake occurs in the future,” Kao said. “It’s generally the public’s impression that Alberta seems to be immune from earthquake activity, but that’s not true.”
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE, Alta. — The ground rumbled in Alberta on Saturday as the strongest earthquake the province has seen in over a decade hit an area west of Red Deer.
Natural Resources Canada reported the 4.3 magnitude quake happened at 9:28 local time near Rocky Mountain House.
It said there were no reports of damage, and that none would be expected from a quake that size.
Power was disrupted to about 500 customers, including a gas plant near Rocky Mountain House.
AltaLink spokesperson Scott Schreiner said a substation in the area locked out to prevent a surge or other damage on the system, and that power was restored about two hours later.
Keyara Corp., which operates the Strachan gas plant, said the facility flared off excess gas when it lost power, but there was no damage.
Julie Puddell, a spokesperson for Keyara, said the gas was flared as a safety measure. She said Alberta Environment was contacted for air quality monitoring.
Ted Hickey, the director of community and protective services for Clearwater County, said there was no risk to the public during the flaring.
Hickey said there were no reports of damage from the quake.
“There were some local reports of people feeling something, but they were pretty isolated,” Hickey said, noting he didn’t feel the earthquake at all.
Still, Honn Kao, an earthquakes seismologist with the Geological Survey of Canada, said there hasn’t been an Alberta earthquake this big since a 4.0 quake shook an area northwest of Rocky Mountain House close to the B.C. boundary in 2001.
Kao said Alberta isn’t especially well-known for earthquakes. There have been only two other small quakes in the province in the last 30 days, and they were a magnitude of 2 or 3.
While that may sound like plenty, he said B.C. has had hundreds in the same period, if offshore areas are included. On July 25, there was a 6.2 magnitude quake near B.C. off the coast of the Alaska Panhandle.
Alberta’s earthquakes typically happen close to the Rocky Mountains, he said.
“This earthquake is a perfect reminder, especially for residents, that this area is active,” Kao said.
“People should take this opportunity to make sure they are very well prepared for any earthquake in the future.”
Kao said oil and gas activity hasn’t been ruled out as a potential case for Saturday’s earthquake, and that seismologists would be studying data to see if it may have been a factor. But he pointed out that the region where it occurred experienced quakes prior to energy development.
While a 4.0 quake wouldn’t be enough to damage buildings, Kao said it could still cause shelves or glasses to fall and cause injury.
“If you don’t have well-constructed buildings, even a magnitude 6.0 can cause fatalities,” he said.
