A small earthquake hit the western side of the islands last week.? The 3.7 magnitude quake hit around 9 pm Tuesday night and was felt by a few islanders.”Some people felt it, some people didn’t,” said Queen Charlotte resident Jen Bulbrook. “I felt it, but I didn’t know at the time it was an earthquake. I thought it was my washer on spin cycle, then I realized I didn’t have laundry on.”Gladys Noddin of Queen Charlotte also felt the quake, “it was definitely strong enough to shake the house,” she said. Ms Noddin said that none of her friends mentioned feeling it, something that didn’t surprise her given that there was an earthquake of the same size a few months ago and she said no one felt it then either.The quake was reported by about a dozen people in Queen Charlotte and one person in Masset, said Dr. John Cassidy, head of the earthquake seismology section at Natural Resources Canada in Victoria. Dr. Cassidy said that the quake was not huge but would have been more reported under different circumstances.Dr. Cassidy said that the quake happened 54 km from Queen Charlotte and, “was not felt so widely because of the distance. The earth structure in Haida Gwaii is quite complicated so it absorbs or reflects the seismic waves, in other parts of Canada it would have been felt more.”Dr. Cassidy described the islands as being in a very active region for earthquakes and said one occurs here virtually every day, but are too small to be felt. He said we average about six quakes a year that are actually felt by residents and encourages anyone who feels a quake to report it at the Earthquakes Canada website.
