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Earthquakes to Tsunamis

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From Earthquakes to Tsunamis Canada’s West Coast which is home to beautiful British Columbia, has experienced a fault line issue which created more earthquakes with magnitudes greater than any other of the provinces and territories. Out of the 4000 earthquakes that happen per year in Canada, scientists at the Geological Survey of Canada stated that there are “approximately 1000 earthquakes each year in western Canada” (Lyons, 2013). The most seismic earthquakes happen on the shore of Vancouver Island. Recently there have been many fault lines discovered in British Columbia that could lead to very dangerous natural disasters. Looking back at the history of the fault lines, specific complications, and what could happen next in the future, we will be well informed of the reasons for geological faults as we compare data and realize what is to come. The earliest known earthquake to be recorded that happened on the west coast of Canada happened in the M9 Cascadia Subduction Zone. On January 26, 1700 a fault line running through undersea Cascadia “ruptured along a 1000 km length, from mid Vancouver Island to northern California in a great earthquake” (The M9 Cascadia, 2013). This created a colossal amount of damage and a huge tsunami was formed as well which went across the Pacific Ocean. On the Richter Magnitude Scale, the M9 earthquake was a 9 which meant that there was great damage to buildings, near to total destruction, and many unfortunate casualties. On December 14, 1872, an earthquake in Washington caused a shock which affected Seattle, Portland, Victoria, and Vancouver. Its magnitude was at 7.4 which caused a few buildings to collapse and felt across great distances. The Puget Sound fault and Seattle fault were two of the main faults involved. For a long time, Geologists could not figure out where the earthquake had started. In 2002, they “uncovered evidence that located the 1872 quake’s epicenter at the southern end of Lake Chelan, a mere 99 miles from the Columbia plant” (Smith, 2014). As shown in Figure 1, the next day, central Oregon, Alberta, and Montana was said to have felt the aftershock as well. A similar disaster happened in 1918, the M7 Vancouver Island Earthquake, which also had a magnitude of 7. Instead, the M7 occurred near the west coast of Vancouver island which “awakened people all over Vancouver Figure 1: Map of the 1872 earthquake that affected Seattle and its surrounding neighbours

Figure 1: Map of the 1872 earthquake that affected Seattle and its surrounding neighbours

Island and in the greater Vancouver area…it was felt in northern Washington state and as far east as Kelowna, in the interior of British Columbia” (Lyon, 2013).

These were not the only earthquakes caused by faults. According to geological evidence, ‘13 great earthquakes have occurred in the last 6000 years’ (The M9 Cascadia, 2013)!

Works Cited
BCIT.(n.d.). Unit1: Earthquakes/The Seismicity of Canada. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://commons.bcit.ca/civil/students/earthquakes/unit1_02.htm
Dimensions. (2011, September 30). Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/dimensions/issue8/earthquakes.html
Earthquake Details. (2013, May 3). Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/recent_eq/2012/20121028.0304/inde x-eng.php
Halchuk, S., & Lyons, J. (2013, April 26). Earthquake zones in Eastern Canada. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/zones/eastcan-eng.php
Lau, A. (2012, September 21). Tsunami, Fault Line Possible Near Proposed Pipeline. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/21/bc- fault-line-tsunami-earthquake-northern-gateway-pipeline-kitimat_n_1902422.html
Lyons, J. (2013, April 26). Seismic Zones in Western Canada, Government of Canada. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/zones/westcan-eng.php
Lyons, J. (2013, April 26). The M7 Vancouver Island Earthquake of December 6, 1918. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/historic-historique/events/19181206- eng.php
Majewski, C., & Halchuk, S. (2013, June 28). Important Canadian Earthquakes. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/historic-historique/map-carte-eng.php
Mid Island News Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://midislandnews.com/vancouver-island-marine-communication/earthquake- map-of-vancouver-island
Smith, G. (2014, May 5). Washington's Columbia Generating Station Is a Seismic Timebomb. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/washingtons_columb ia_generating_station_is_a_seismic_timebomb/
The M9 Cascadia Megathrust Earthquake of January 26, 1700. (2013, April 26). Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/historic-historique/events/17000126- eng.php
Wolfe-Wylie, W. (2015, January 27). Every fault line in British Columbia - CBC News - Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/multimedia/every-fault-line-in-british- columbia-1.2919420

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