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A 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck the west coast of B.C. on Sunday afternoon, roughly 137 kilometres northwest of Pemberton.
The earthquake, which occurred round 3:30 p.m., may very well be felt on northern and central Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and components of Better Vancouver.
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John Cassidy, a seismologist with Pure Sources Canada, says individuals over a “very extensive area” of the province have reported feeling the earthquake.
Cassidy mentioned the quake was felt as far-off as Kelowna, greater than 350 kilometres from the quake’s epicentre.
Cassidy says seismic occasions in that a part of the province are “comparatively uncommon,” with the final quake within the space across the similar magnitude hitting in 2017. He says Sunday’s quake wasn’t an entire shock for the reason that province’s coastal areas are an energetic earthquake zone, however the largest and most frequent earthquakes happen offshore.
“For this dimension of an earthquake, aftershocks are anticipated,” Cassidy mentioned. “In truth we’re recording quite a few small aftershocks right now. So the biggest that we’ve seen up to now is a couple of 2.6 magnitude.”
Cassidy mentioned aftershocks can occur hours and even days after such quakes, however are inclined to drop off in frequency “as time goes on.”
There have been no reviews of harm or accidents up to now.
Earlier this month, a magnitude 3.1 earthquake was felt in components of the B.C.’s Okanagan area.
B.C.’s earthquake and tsunami information says there are a mean of three,000 quakes reported within the province yearly.
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The information says most of them are too small to be felt, however tremors sturdy sufficient to trigger structural injury sometimes occur as soon as each 10 years.
Nonetheless, B.C. is in danger from what is commonly referred to as “the massive one” — a megathrust temblor that might happen offshore the place the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate is being pressured underneath the North American plate — in addition to from fault traces that run via the Pacific Northwest.
With recordsdata from Canadian Press and Glenda Luymes
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