The second-largest earthquake to strike Canada off the north coast of British Columbia in 2012 is far from old news, said a group of experts last week who studied the event.
While the 2012 7.7 magnitude quake shook the coast of Haida Gwaii has been believed to alleviate some tectonic pressure along Canada’s west coast, researchers that helped publish a series of studies in the last week’s issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America have stated that Haida Gwaii is susceptible to becoming Canada’s next likely location for a potentially devastating earthquake.
“What [the 2012 earthquake] has done in essence is raise the possibility of future thrust earthquakes and tsunamis along this part of the British Columbia margin,” Thomas James, a researcher with the Geological Survey of Canada told the Canadian Press last week, explaining that the tectonic plates along the Queen Charlotte Fault both slide along and push against each other.
“Any large earthquake can generate a tsunami, but thrust earthquakes are especially effective,” James added to the Canadian Press.
A lack of larger-scale quakes and tsunamis along B.C.’s coast in recent years has attributed to public criticism over the province’s and various municipalities’ ability to handle either a quake or tsunami effectively. The Ministry of Emergency Management B.C. issued a statement after the experts’ report was released, stating “the Province will continue taking significant strides toward improving disaster preparedness in B.C”.