2010 Earthquake?

ROBERT MATAS

Globe and Mail, August 28, 2008

VANCOUVER— A “swarm of earthquakes” off the coast of Vancouver Island that caused no damage drew international attention yesterday as the global media shifted its gaze from Beijing to Vancouver, the site of the 2010Winter Olympics.

Initially the earthquake was reported to be a 6.2-magnitude quake off Vancouver Island, suggesting the possibility of similarities to the6.2-magnitude earthquake that shook China's Sichuan province three days before the Beijing Olympics began.

The earthquake in Sichuan, hours after the Olympic torch had passed through the province, was reported to have led to the deaths of at least two people. An earthquake in China three months earlier killed tens of thousands of people.

However the earthquake, almost 500 kilometres northwest of Vancouver's Olympic sites, remained in the headlines only briefly. By mid-morning,the event was downgraded to a 5.85-magnitude earthquake and dismissed by experts as a fairly routine event under the Pacific Ocean.

Earthquake seismologist Alison Bird of the Geological Survey of Canada said in an interview that the earthquake was too minor and too far from shore for any impact to be felt on land. However, a Vancouver Island resident said he thought the earthquake woke him up, but then he quickly fell back asleep. The activity occurred about 150 kilometres west of the northern tip of Vancouver Island, around 10 kilometres under the surface.

If an earthquake of a similar magnitude and depth happened in Vancouver, it would have been felt, Ms. Bird added. “There would be some damage, although it would not be widespread. But certainly some chimneys would be damaged, there would be cracks in plaster and some masonry would be damaged on the outside,” she said.

At B.C. Place, the site of the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake would cause “a strong shake,” but would likely not cause any structural failure, Ms. Bird added. “These are very moderate. There are earthquakes this size in the world everyday,” she said.

Organizers of the 2010 Olympics have included earthquake preparedness in their planning, as they have for the possibility of a rock slide on the highway linking the Olympic sites in Vancouver and Whistler.

Renée Smith-Valade, a spokesperson for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Winter Games, said their contingency planning involves the broadest spectrum of emergency scenarios. “We are working in close partnership with the appropriate levels of government and stakeholders to ensure that collectively we're appropriately prepared,” she said in a statement e-mailed to The Globe and Mail.

But a VANOC official who was not authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the organizing committee said they have not yet received any inquiries from the international media about earthquakes during the Olympics.

Ms. Bird said the series of earthquakes started Tuesday evening and was continuing yesterday.

“We have swarms of activity in this area every once in a while,”she said, adding that the intensity of activity could stretch over days or possibly over a few weeks. “Some hours we have an earthquake every minute or two; other hours we are not quite so busy,” she said.

The activity is caused by new material coming up in between two plates in the subduction zone, which runs below the Pacific Ocean along the West Coast, as the plates move away from each other. The new material goes into the gap where the plates have opened, and cools, she said.

She cautioned that the seismologists require more time to take a closer look at their information before determining exactly what is happening.“There are so many earthquakes and so much interest from the media, we haven't had time yet,” she said with a laugh. “I'm not blaming you, but there are only a few of us who do this,” Ms. Bird said.