Swarm of 30-plus earthquakes recorded off B.C. coast in three days
British Columbia is known for its seismic activity, but it's not often the province is quite as active as it has been in recent days.
According to Natural Resources Canada (NRC), there have been more than 30 events since Thursday, Sept. 14, but none have been felt and there has been no damage reported.
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"We are currently monitoring a swarm of earthquakes far off the coast of northern Vancouver Island," NRC said on its website.
Multiple earthquakes were recorded off the coast of B.C. Sunday morning, with the strongest registering a higher-than 5 magnitude. NRC said the latest quakes were registered as 4.2,5.5 and 4.0 magnitudes. They occurred at depths of five, eight and five kilometres, and occurred 192, 178 and 185 kilometres west of Port Hardy, B.C., respectively.
No damage was anticipated, but the two Port Hardy tremors did trigger tsunami alerts. However, none are expected.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) gave slightly higher magnitudes for the first two Port Hardy earthquakes on Sunday, assigning them 4.5 and 5.6, respectively. The third, most recent Port Hardy tremor hasn't been posted on the USGS website. Damage from the quakes was also not anticipated from USGS.
But, if you look closer at the USGS website, there was an additional B.C. earthquake on Sunday that wasn't recognized on NRC's website. It said it occurred on Vancouver Island and had a magnitude of 4.3, registered at a depth of 12 kilometres. No damage or tsunami was expected.
Vancouver Island is located close to an active boundary of three tectonic plates – Pacific, Juan de Fuca and North American. The ongoing interaction among these tectonic plates has the potential to generate large earthquakes, according to Rachel Modestino, a meteorologist at The Weather Network.
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