Chateau Petrus Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 (edited) Sat Jan 5, 7:15 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two strong 6.5-magnitude earthquakes struck off Canada's west coast early on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quakes were both at a depth of 6.2 miles in the Queen Charlotte Islands region, and followed a smaller earlier 5.3-magnitude temblor in the area. The larger quakes were 137 and 146 miles west north-west of Port Hardy, British Columbia, the USGS said on its Web site. There were no immediate reports of damage, or warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii Edited January 5, 2008 by Chateau Petrus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chateau Petrus Posted January 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 (edited) Sat Jan 5, 11:48 AM By The Canadian Press VANCOUVER - A trio of moderate to powerful earthquakes struck early Saturday off the B.C. coast, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury. Guy Urban at the Alaska and Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a moderate quake of magnitude 5.3, perhaps a "pre-shock" was recorded at 5:39 a.m. EST. Two stronger quakes, the first with a magnitude of 6.7 was recorded about 20 minutes later, followed by a magnitude 6.5 temblor, in an area about 230 kilometres southeast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, west of Port Hardy, B.C. Urban said the centre had received no e-mails or calls from anyone feeling the quake, and no tsunami warning was issued. The Tsunami Center issues warnings when earthquakes are larger than magnitude 7. "We're pretty much convinced that no tsunami has been generated," Urban said. "We're watching our tide gauges scattered around the Pacific Coast and we saw no tsunami anywhere on any of those." However, he said there might be some slight sea-level changes. "Fortunately it was out in the water," Urban said. "Had it been on land, it could have caused some significant damage." Edited January 5, 2008 by Chateau Petrus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenadian Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 No wonder they didn't get any calls or e-mails...I don't think bears and whales have cell phones or blackberries. The quake happened in a rather remote area. Vancouver didn't feel it. We just have a lot of wind today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Earthquakes don't stroke, they strike! Anyway, I heard on the news yesterday there were some more quakes off the coast somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTHarner Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 No big deal, the area often sees seismic activity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceNarcissus Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Bragging Time: This news isn't big. I've been in a 7.5 before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.x Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 No big deal, the area often sees seismic activity. We see small seismic activity, but rarely anything bigger than a 5 on the richter scale. This definitely is a big deal. Six days ago, we saw two 6.5's within an hour apart. Yesterday, we saw a 6.1 near the same location. And also yesterday, a 6.4 striked off the coast of Oregon. Could this be signs of massive plate movements? i.e. the Big One? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisher Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 We see small seismic activity, but rarely anything bigger than a 5 on the richter scale. This definitely is a big deal.Six days ago, we saw two 6.5's within an hour apart. Yesterday, we saw a 6.1 near the same location. And also yesterday, a 6.4 striked off the coast of Oregon. Could this be signs of massive plate movements? i.e. the Big One? Earthquakes are actually quite prevalent in the Queen Charlotte's. In fact, the Queen Charlotte's are actually on a transform fault (like the San Andreas) which is called the Queen Charlotte Fault. The subduction zone is caused by the Juan de Fuca Plate that is being pushed under the North American Plate, which ends near the north end of Vancouver Island. The largest recorded quake in recorded Canadian history occured there in 1949 at 8.1 on the richter scale. I probably wouldn't really take these as 'precursors' to a big one happening along the subduction zone fault. Link below is a good quick link about the seismic zones in Western Canada. http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/zones..._e.php#Cascadia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chateau Petrus Posted January 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Earthquakes don't stroke, they strike! Just a reminder that I'm french speaking. Sorry if my english writting is not perfect. I try to do my best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taichi Posted January 12, 2008 Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 Is it near the fault line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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