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“B.C. in ‘Risk Zone’ for Coastal Mega - Earthquake: Study”
by CTV News   
June 13th, 2013
tsunami

The last massive earthquake that shook the south coast of British Columbia took place on the cold winter night of Jan. 26, 1700, say researchers who have been able to use sediment samples taken from the sea floor off the coast of Vancouver Island to reveal the Pacific coast’s seismic history.

In a study published Wednesday, the team said the region that stretches from the northern tip of Vancouver Island down the coast to northern California has experienced 22 major earthquakes over the last 11,000 years, and is due for another.

Audrey Dallimore, of the School of Environment and Sustainability at Royal Roads University and the author of the study, said the research showed earthquakes occur every 500 to 1,000 years.

The last one took place 313 years ago.

“What that means is we’re due for another subduction zone earthquake either tomorrow — or 700 years from now,” she said.

“(It) may happen within our lifetimes and will certainly happen at some time over the life of our communities and our infrastructures.”

Researchers extracted a sediment core from the sea floor of Effingham Inlet, in Barclay Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and used radiocarbon dating to determine when large or so-called megathrust earthquakes occurred on what is known as the Cascadia subduction zone.

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