No reports of injury or damage and no tsunami warning were issued Monday after the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) suffered six earthquakes off the west coast of Vancouver Island Sunday night, according to the BC provincial government.
The epicenters of the so-called "shallow-depth" earthquakes were in the open ocean approximately 200 km from the Vancouver Island town of Port Hardy.
The first with a magnitude of 6.6 happened at 8:39 p.m. Sunday local time (0539 GMT Monday), followed by another minutes later with a magnitude of 6.8. The two quakes were followed by four more earthquakes.
Aftershocks are expected in the coming days as British Columbia is located on an active seismic zone that includes Vancouver Island and parts of Northern California. Most of previous quakes happened near this area, which is called the Cascadia subduction zone where North American tectonic plates converge.
Seismic activity is common for this area, prompting provincial officials to refer to the area a "high-risk earthquake zone". The provincial government's website recommends residents have supplies and emergency kits so they are prepared to be on their own for at least 72 hours.
There is also an earthquake early-warning system in place that has been recently tested off the BC coast, potentially giving residents 20 seconds to two minutes to prepare for an earthquake. Enditem
