Tuesday’s earthquake serves as reminder to get prepared
Posted September 3, 2013 2:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Have you made an earthquake kit yet? A strong quake off B.C.’s central coast this afternoon is again serving as a reminder that B.C. needs to be prepared for a major disaster.
The 6.1 magnitude quake was centred more than 200 kilometres west-south-west of Bella Bella, which struck at 1:19 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
No damage has been reported, and there is no threat of a tsunami for B.C.’s central coast according to Earthquakes Canada.
Still, this earthquake comes as a warning for people to prepare for a disaster.
“This is the perfect reminder for us to know that we are living in a very seismically active region,” says Honn Kao with Earthquakes Canada.
Kao claims the region is prone to moderate-strong earthquakes, and since it’s close enough to major populated centres there is concern when it comes to more intense shaking and tsunamis.
“There’s really no reason to think that [today’s earthquake] is really an uncommon event at all,” he adds.
In fact Tuesday’s earthquake was not far from the October 2012, 7.8 magnitude quake off Haida Gwaii, which was the second strongest quake ever recorded in Canada.
Kao is urging everyone to take part in the Great B.C. Shake Out, a province wide earthquake drill in which you can join News1130 on the morning of October 17, 2013.
“I strongly encourage everybody to participate in this event so we can all be prepared for these kinds of things.”
Two aftershocks follow
Natural Resources Canada says two more afternoon quakes struck within 20 minutes of each other, and measured 4.5 and 4.9 on the Richter scale.
The first quake was measured at a depth of one kilometre, but the subsequent aftershocks were deeper in the Earth’s crust at a depth of more than 10 kilometres.
The U.S. National Weather Service says the aftershocks are not expected to generate a tsunamis.
