Small magnitude 2.2 quake detected in Salmon Arm, B.C.
No damage has been reported, but some people did report shaking
A small earthquake struck the B.C. Interior community of Salmon Arm on Saturday night.
Earthquakes Canada rated the tremor at Magnitude 2.2., occurring at 8:39 p.m. PST
"There are no reports of damage, and none would be expected," the agency says, referring to the quake's low magnitude.
No emergency was declared. However, several residents did report some shaking, with some hearing what they described as an explosion.
One reason such a weak earthquake may have still been felt by residents is its shallow depth, which Earthquakes Canada says was only one kilometre.
Earthquakes Canada seismologist Taimi Mulder told Global News earthquakes are not common in the B.C. Interior, and those that do occur are typically of a low magnitude.
It is a different story on the coasts, which are closer to the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the Juan da Fuca plate is disappearing beneath the North American Plate, a process marked by the occasional earthquake as one plate sticks to the other and then becomes unstuck with violent force.
That was the site of a Magnitude 9.0 quake in 1700 that was so powerful, it caused major devastation to B.C. and the Pacific Northwest and sent a tsunami as far away as Japan. Japanese records refer to it as the "orphan tsunami," as they were too far away to feel the initial quake, and the Indigenous peoples in the region were so devastated by the event it endured in First Nations folklore.
SOURCE: Global News | Earthquakes Canada | Emergency Info BC
