Local News
3.9-magnitude earthquake hits U.S. south of Victoria
An inland earthquake struck near the city of Port Angeles, Wash. Wednesday afternoon, just 59 kilometres southeast of Victoria, B.C.
Earthquakes Canada originally reported a 3.9-magnitude quake around 4:18 p.m. in the Olympic National Park area south of the border along the Salish Sea.
The agency says there were no reports of damage, and none expected, but shakes were “lightly felt” in Victoria.
Wednesday’s earthquake follows a 4.1-magnitude, March 3 quake near Sidney, a 5.2-magnitude, Feb. 24 quake in the ocean west of Port Alice, and the Feb. 21 quake near Sechelt that was felt all over coastal B.C. and the Lower Mainland.
Emergency Info BC confirms there is no threat of tsunami.
It was the fourth recorded earthquake near B.C. in less than three weeks.
John Cassidy, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, says the recent quakes are “unrelated.”
Cassidy says they’re simply too far apart to be connected.
“And the time lag between them is too great,” he explained.
“Today’s earthquake in the Olympic Peninsula was a deep earthquake, so it’s in a totally different subducting tectonic plate, so totally separate from the North American plate. And then the offshore earthquakes are on well-known active faults that are very active off of Vancouver Island. And those are on other tectonic plates, quite separate from North America and quite separate from the subducting plate, the Juan de Fuca plate. So they’re all on totally different faults, different tectonic plates, different systems, but these are regions where we do see the small earthquakes happening each and every day.”
He says the frequency of earthquakes of recent magnitude is a reminder that bigger ones happen, but not an indication that a big one is coming.
“The good thing from all of this is that people are checking their earthquake kits,” said Cassidy.
“It’s not something to be worried about. It doesn’t tell us that we’re closer to another bigger earthquake, but it does remind us that earthquakes happen here on a regular basis, and so being prepared is really important.”
