Sunday, September 18, 2016

Powerful Earthquake moves off Vancouver Island Coast



catastrophe modeling firm AIR global, has issued a report on the powerful M6.6 earthquake that struck off the coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island at about three:10 a.m. UTC (8:10 p.m. nearby time) a at a intensity of 11.4 km (7.1 miles).
AIR cited that to this point “no accidents were pronounced, and there may be no tsunami warning in effect, in step with the country wide Tsunami warning middle.  smaller aftershocks of M5.zero and M4.2 were additionally stated.”
AIR said it “does now not count on any sizable losses from this event due to the fact this occasion befell offshore and near a in moderation populated vicinity of Victoria. the principle quake reportedly lasted approximately 10 seconds. In downtown Vancouver a few citizens in high rises said they felt their building sway. Others in homes closer the epicenter suggested swinging chandeliers. No local warnings were issued, and firefighters did no longer ought to respond to any emergencies.”
Dr. Bingming Shen-Tu, assistant vice president and senior most important scientist at AIR international, defined that the “earthquake and its aftershocks passed off at the northern or northwestern edge of the Cascadia subduction sector in which the North American Plate meets the Explorer and Juan de Fuca plates.
“It took place in the Nookta fault sector that borders the Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates. Seismicity close to the Nootka fault zone and farther north and northwest alongside the Explorer/Pacific plates and North American plate limitations has been very active inside the beyond century. The most latest huge quake changed into a value 7.eight event that shook Haida Gwaii, about 500 km (310 miles) north of the day past’s earthquake. there was little harm and no tsunami become generated by using that quake.”
He added: “South of the Nootka fault, tectonic forces have driven the Juan de Fuca plate below the North American plate and created the Cascadia subduction area. but, earthquake activity in the Cascadia subduction quarter has been very quiet in the beyond century.”
some scientists have speculated that for the past three centuries, those plates have been locked together, generating vast stress in the Cascadia subduction sector.
“when this stress is released, effective earthquakes can arise, inclusive of the ambitious M9.0 event that struck the area in 1700. in step with geological proof, the Cascadia subduction quarter gives upward push to such megathrust earthquakes every three hundred to 800 years.”
Dr. Shen-Tu said that these conditions may want to purpose “a huge megathrust earthquake in the Cascadia subduction quarter, which could probable “devastate Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia, and critically harm cities in the northwestern america, together with Seattle and Portland. Such an earthquake may generate a effective tsunami that might inundate seashores alongside the west coast of North the united states and reason damage in countries throughout the Pacific Ocean, along with Japan.”
according to AIR, “approximately seventy five percentage of residential homes in Canada are of wood frame production; the second one most not unusual residential structure type in Canada is masonry. In British Columbia, over ninety percent of houses are wood body. wood construction has traditionally done nicely in earthquakes, because of its mild weight and excessive cloth electricity.
“Nail connections in timber frame construction permit flexibility, and consequently permit timber systems to take in big quantities of power at some stage in earthquake shaking compared to other building sorts.

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