Popular hot-spring pools dry up
EARTHQUAKE AFTERMATH: But there is a chance water could return, SFU geologist says
Saturday’s earthquake in Haida Gwaii appears to have claimed a victim — the well-known hot springs in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.
The three pools commonly accessed by visitors to Hot Spring Island, or Gandll K’in Gwaayaay, are no longer flowing or hot, according to area resident Tassilo Goetz Hanisch.
He stopped at the island late Tuesday to find the pools empty and thought they might have been drained for cleaning, as happens occasionally. But he went to the pools the next day and found they still weren’t operating.
“Normally, you could hear water bubbling, but there was nothing to be heard,” said Hanisch, who lives on Kunghit Island, where he operates the Rose Harbour Guest House. “No trickle, not a drop. It’s just driedup green mud. It’s going to be a huge impact.”
He could find only one place where the rocks were slightly warm.
Hanisch expects tourism to be impacted.
“It’s going to hurt things,” he said. “It was certainly one of the highlights.”
It wasn’t just the three famous pools that were affected when the earth shifted Saturday.
“There are other places on the island where water bubbles, but there’s no water anywhere,” Hanisch said.
But there is a chance the springs could return, said geologist Brent Ward of Simon Fraser University.
He said the fissures carrying heated groundwater to the surface were likely closed by Saturday’s quake or one of the aftershocks.
“Sometimes it comes back and sometimes it doesn’t,” Ward said. “It could find another way up.”
Ernie Gladstone, field unit supervisor for Gwaii Haanas, said the hot springs are only about 30 to 40 kilometres from the site of Saturday’s earthquake, but that hasn’t been proven to be the cause.
“We will be consulting with experts to try to determine exactly what happened and also to determine whether this is a short-term or a long-term event,” said Gladstone, adding that the springs were operating when checked two days before the quake.