More minor earthquakes hit southern B.C. region

Asp ate of nearly 30 earthquakes off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island Wednesday and Thursday isn’t related to an event that would spark the so-called Big One, says a federal government seismologist.

No damage was recorded as a result of the quakes.

One 4.4-magnitude earthquake occurred just after 10 p.m. on Wednesday about 89 kilometres southwest of Port Alice and about 50 km from the Vancouver Island coastline. Temblors of this size can be felt, but are unlikely to cause damage.

The 4.4 earthquake follows a 4.7-magnitude quake recorded in the same offshore area Feb. 12 and an inland quake of 4.0 north of Pemberton on Feb. 18.

There was also a 4.2 quake in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state Thursday morning.

“I think it’s important to take these events as reminders to all of us to make sure we are wellprepared for seismic risk,” Natu- ral Resources Canada seismologist Honn Kao said Thursday.

Kao explained that the spate of temblors offshore of the Island have taken place where three tectonic plates meet and are believed to be the result of their combined movement.

This isn’t related to the rupture of stuck tectonic plates off the coast of the Island that would trigger the so-called Big One, Kao said.

At Winter Harbour, a small village on the north coast of Vancouver Island, Sarah Moore, manager of The Outpost, which provides accommodation to sports fishermen and also houses a general store, didn’t feel the quakes. However, she said they know about them because they get warnings of a potential tsunami.

“But nothing has come of it,” said Moore, who has lived at Winter Harbour for two years.

Scientists have estimated the combined risk of several types of quakes puts the probability of a major seismic event hitting a populated area in southwest B.C. at 30 per cent in the next 50 years.

Those earthquakes include the so-called Big One but also shallow and deep quakes on land. The last Big One took place in 1700 and the most recent major earthquake in B.C., at 7.3 magnitude, took place on land in 1946 on the Island. One death was attributed to the 1946 quake when a boat was swamped near Courtenay.

While there has been some work done in B.C. to seismically upgrade bridges, schools and public buildings, there is no plan to upgrade private buildings, a Postmedia investigation last year found.