3.6 magnitude quake Christmas Day latest to strike west Vancouver Island
No damage is expected after a 3.6 magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean around 150 kilometres west of Port Alice, B.C., on Christmas morning, the latest in a string of quakes to hit the area over the past week.
Wednesday’s quake happened around 8:30 a.m. PT.
It’s considered an aftershock of a larger 6.2 quake in the same general area on Christmas Eve, said Andrew Schaeffer, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada.
«Having earthquakes in this region is completely normal. We’re used to a lot of them there,» he said.
«This is an area of high seismicity.»
Over the past year, there have been almost 90 magnitude 3 quakes in the area, he said. Another 15 to 20 were magnitude 4.
The Christmas Day quake is one of about 15 between magnitudes 2 and 3 to hit the area in a sequence that started on Dec. 23.
Earthquakes that are magnitudes 2 and 3 do not produce tsunamis and «almost certainly» cannot be felt by anyone when they occur so far off shore, Schaeffer said.
«What these earthquakes really remind us is we live in a seismically active part of Canada,» he said.
«It’s always a good idea to be prepared.»
