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7.7 Magnitude Quake Hits British Columbia

schwit1 writes "A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit Canada's Pacific coast province of British Columbia on Saturday night, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The quake was centered 123 miles south-southwest of Prince Rupert at a depth of 6.2 miles. 'Earthquakes Canada said the quake in the Haida Gwaii region has been followed by numerous aftershocks as large as 4.6 and said a small tsunami has been recorded by a deep ocean pressure sensor. 'It was felt across much of north-central B.C., including Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert, Quesnel, and Houston. There have been no reports of damage at this time,' the agency said in a statement on its website.'"

7 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Ocean Seeding by Kris+Warkentin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah ha! Proof that seeding the ocean with iron causes earthquakes!

    --

    In Soviet Russia, hot grits put YOU down THEIR pants.
  2. Re:About 1% of the energy of the Japanese earthqua by Maow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course, that didn't stop anyone from fearmongering and once more tens of thousands were evacuated needlessly - ensuring that hundreds or thousands won't follow evacuation orders when a real tsunami is coming.

    And they'd be idiots for ignoring a tsunami warning.

    It is about time to stop using logarithmic scales for earthquakes. A 7.7 isn't anywhere near as bad as a 9.0 or a 9.2 that created the tsunamis of Japan iand Indonesia respectively.

    It's not the logarithmic nature of the scale that's an issue, but the type of earthquake. A subduction quake causes more water displacement, hence greater tsunami, for a given magnitude. This was not a subduction quake, but a parallel slipping.

    if tell them to evacuate hundreds of times because of waves barely reaching the height of an average humans knee. (The 1m height reported is from peak to the lowest point - and the lowest point was 2 feet below normal sealevel.)

    I've told you eleventeen trillion times not to exaggerate. I don't believe there's been a tsunami warning since the Japan quake.

    The only sane course of action if you're somewhere in the pacific or indian ocean and hear a tsunami warning, is to tell people to go and fuck off. Stop crying wolf!

    That's an insanely stupid course of action. You're quite welcome to follow it however.

  3. Earthquake in BC by fustakrakich · · Score: 4, Funny

    God's reaction to that kid's arrest...

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  4. Re:About 1% of the energy of the Japanese earthqua by Maow · · Score: 4, Informative

    There have been 5 tsunami warnings of some description stemming from 5 different earthquakes in the pacific area within the last 30 days alone.

    http://ptwc.weather.gov/

    Fair enough, but they have not been "fearmongering". Plus it's better to have warnings that don't pan out than no warnings at all.

    To quote one of the warnings, for a 7.1 magnitude from Queen Charlottes / Haida Gwai (emphasis added):

    TSUNAMI INFORMATION STATEMENT NUMBER 1
    NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
    521 PM HST SAT OCT 27 2012

    TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII

    SUBJECT - TSUNAMI INFORMATION STATEMENT

    THIS STATEMENT IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY. NO ACTION REQUIRED.

    AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

          ORIGIN TIME - 0504 PM HST 27 OCT 2012
          COORDINATES - 52.9 NORTH 131.9 WEST
          LOCATION - QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
    MAGNITUDE - 7.1 MOMENT

    EVALUATION

    BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS
      NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.
    REPEAT. A
      DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO
      TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.

    THIS WILL BE THE ONLY STATEMENT ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
    ADDITIONAL DATA ARE RECEIVED.

  5. Re:About 1% of the energy of the Japanese earthqua by djmurdoch · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's only one "warning" on that page, the one from last night's earthquake. The others are "information statements" and "information bulletins".

    Now, if you want to say that people should not treat every mention of the word "tsunami" as a warning to evacuate, you'd be right. But you said they should ignore the hundreds of "warnings", and there haven't been hundreds of "warnings". There's just been one in the last month. (I think there were others this year, but I can't find a list of all of them.)

  6. It's All Right, Everyone by guttentag · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've contacted Canadian Strategic Command. Fortunately, the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve was on the other side of the country at the time, where it's supposed to be, rather than in some seismically unstable criminal warehouse. The rumors of an impending Maple Tsunami are greatly exaggerated.

  7. No damage from the quake? by Epsilon+Moonshade · · Score: 5, Funny

    Even Canadian earthquakes are nice and overly polite.