A series of earthquakes occurring over the last few days off the northwest tip of Vancouver Island is being called an “earthquake swarm” by Natural Resources Canada.
The Earthquakes Canada website shows more than a dozen earthquakes hit over the last four days, all in the same area approximately 200 kilometres off Port Hardy. The largest of the quakes registered at a magnitude of 5.1, according to the site.
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Earthquake seismologist John Cassidy, with Natural Resources Canada, said it is not unusual to see clusters of earthquakes in this offshore region – with 111 earthquakes of M4.8 or larger happening in the area in the last 30 years.
A series of earthquakes ~150 km off the NW tip of #VancouverIsland today. The largest – a M4.8 at 4:34 p.m. PST.
Details: https://t.co/N5nHCHaynZ
Not unusual to see clusters of earthquakes in this offshore region.
111 quakes of M4.8 or larger here in the last 30 yrs. pic.twitter.com/6KbYdg3IWs— John Cassidy (@earthquakeguy) February 14, 2019
“Every few years we have one of these swarms where there is a steady stream of tiny earthquakes,” said Cassidy.
Most of the earthquakes in the current swarm, which began Feb. 10, were small (M<3), with the largest M5.1 occurring on Feb. 13 at 4:34 p.m., according to the Earthquakes Canada website.
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The swarm is on an active fault zone that is a smaller and separate one from the Cascadia subduction zone, and would therefore not contribute to the “Big One”, said Cassidy.
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