Thousands of small earthquakes hit the South Coast since Christmas

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A little over a week after our region was rattled, we’re learning there have been thousands of small earthquakes to hit the South Coast since Christmas, but experts insist it’s nothing worry about.

The area, along with rest of the Pacific Northwest is in a natural seismic cycle right now.

The reason you shouldn’t panic is because this happens about once every year or so, although the numbers right now are way above average.

Typically over a 10-day period we see about 200 tremors, but between January 1st and 4th, there have been more than 2,400 and since Christmas there have been 8,000.

“They occur in-depth, they’re quite deep within the crust beneath Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula. The [quakes] are just too small for a person to even feel them at the surface,” explains SFU Earth Sciences Professor John Clague.

He adds this ‘Slow Slip Episode’ we’re in is simply relieving some pressure of the plates below us and it should wrap up soon. Meantime, the USGS claims the total amount that’s released from the episode can be as big as a magnitude 6.5 earthquake.

“In the past, these episodes, these tiny little earthquakes, have persisted for about a week or two and then they drop off basically to zero and we don’t see another episode or 12 to 16 months.”

He adds that it’s unclear if last week’s earthquake felt across the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island is directly linked to this series of tremors.

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