A tsunami advisory covering much of B.C.’s coast, triggered after a massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia, was cancelled Wednesday morning.
EmergencyInfoBC rescinded the tsunami advisory just after 6 a.m.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!The advisory had included zones covering the North Coast and Haida Gwaii, the Central Coast and northeastern Vancouver Island, including Kitimat, Bella Coola, and Port Hardy, and the outer west coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Scott to Port Renfrew.
The tsunami advisory also covered the Juan de Fuca Strait from the Jordan River area to Greater Victoria, including the Saanich Peninsula.
The advisory did not include the Strait of Georgia, Gulf Islands, Johnstone Strait, or Greater Vancouver.
The advisory initially said tsunami waves of less than 30 centimetres were expected to hit Tofino around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Overnight, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the waves were highest in Langara Island at 27 centimetres. They were 21 centimetres in Tofino.
While the advisory was in place, British Columbians were being urged to stay away from the coast. The District of Tofino had closed beaches and the province’s emergency information agency warned of strong waves and currents.
The earthquake appeared to be the strongest anywhere in the world since the March 2011 earthquake off northeast Japan that was 9.0 magnitude and caused a massive tsunami that set off meltdowns at a nuclear power plant. Only a few stronger earthquakes have ever been measured around the world.
The quake was centered about 119 kilometers (74 miles) east-southeast from the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000, on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Multiple aftershocks as strong as 6.9 magnitude were recorded.
The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko. He said residents were safe and staying on high ground until the threat of a repeat wave was gone.
The quake caused damage to buildings and cars swayed in the streets in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which also had power outages and mobile phone service failures. Russian news agencies quoting the regional Health Ministry saying several people sought medical help in Kamchatka after the earthquake, but no serious injuries were reported.
Ring of Fire strikes again
Along with B.C.’s advisory, the earthquake also triggered alerts in more than 20 countries across the world.
Seismologist John Cassidy tells 1130 NewsRadio that even if waves aren’t that big or don’t seem that powerful, they should always be taken seriously.
“It’s more than a wave. It’s a series of waves that continues for hours, [and] strong currents. It’s like a tide coming in, but it just keeps coming. So, the water, even if it’s only half a metre or one-third of a metre, it carries on inland, so it’s being pushed inland by the force of the current,” Cassidy said.
“It is quite significant, especially in inlets where you can have water sloshing back and forth for many hours, and that’s why these tsunami advisories and warnings continue for so long.”
The shaker happened on the active Ring of Fire, and Cassidy says this is a reminder that anything that happens on the ring, likely will almost always affect British Columbia.
“We have the same type of tectonic plate movements in this region, off the coast of Vancouver Island and off the coast of Haida Gwaii. These tectonic plates are moving at about the same speed that your fingernails grow, so it’s not very fast, but over decades or centuries, you’re talking about a lot of energy that’s been stored,” he explained.
“We know the west coast is Canada’s most seismically active region.”
Cassidy, who is based in Victoria, thinks the province did its job in relaying pertinent information to the public.
“Certainly, the information was coming out and the updates were coming in every hour, and it does take time initially … to estimate travel times and arrival times.”
Given the level of seismic activity around B.C., Cassidy says if you weren’t before, this is a serious wake-up call to start preparing for the worst, which includes an emergency kit and removing any large pictures or frames from above your bed.
“It is important to realize we do live in an active earthquake zone that can generate really significant tsunamis. In this case, we had time. They were very distant events, and the tsunamis take hours to travel across the Pacific, but we live on the South Coast of British Columbia, and it’s the same type of tectonic setting where we also see these large magnitude 9.0 earthquakes when an ocean plate is being pushed beneath British Columbia,” he said.
“They are rare events, they happen hundreds of years apart, but they’ve happened in the past.”
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With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press.