Magnitude-6.4 quake strikes off of Vancouver

[Guest guest]

http://news.yahoo.com/magnitude-6-4-quake-strikes-off-vancouver-203444424.html

Magnitude-6.4 quake strikes off of Vancouver

AP – 4 hrs ago.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck Friday off

the coast of British Columbia, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake struck 12:41 p.m. PDT (1941 GMT) at a depth of 14.3 miles (23

kilometers) about 173 miles (279 kilometers) west of Vancouver, the USGS said.

The quake was initially reported to have a magnitude of 6.7 but was later

downgraded by the USGS.

The quake's epicenter just off the west coast of Vancouver Island, south of Port

Hardy.

Halchuck, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said the quake

lasted for 20-30 seconds and rattled buildings across Vancouver Island and the

southwest portion of British Columbia. He said there has been no immediate

reports of damage in the region.

According to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center no tsunami was

expected.

" This event was not the type to generate a tsunami. It's size was not large

enough and the mechanism of the earthquake would not have generated a

significant tsunami, " said Halchuck.

However, the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center advised that

underwater landslides may cause " local tsunamis " at some coastal locations that

experienced strong tremors.

Many in the small coastal community of Zeballos, is at sea level, felt the earth

move under them.

" I was walking out of the office and started to feel the building shake, then

the rumble of the earth move. And when that rumbling that comes up through your

feet, you know right away, 'oh, we're having one of those,' " Holli Bellavie, the

municipal administrator for Zeballos said in a telephone interview.

Bellavie said she waited for the aftershocks to ripple through but didn't feel

any.

Halchuck said he anticipates a number of aftershocks to hit British Columbia in

the coming days but said they will likely be too small in scale to be felt.

" Each earthquake is unique and has it own aftershock sequence. Some have many

thousands of aftershocks and some have only a few or none at all. In this case,

we would expect to see some aftershocks, much smaller in size and they would

decrease over time, some of which would be too small to be felt by people on

land. "

Bellavie said the power in her building went out for a couple of minutes but

there was no damage or injuries aside from co-workers who said dishes fell from

cupboards and picture frames tumbled off shelves.

She said the village's elementary school closed immediately and students were

evacuated. Since Zeballos is at sea level, the region is set up to react quickly

to tsunami warnings and earthquake evacuations.

There were also no immediate reports of damage in the closest parts of

Washington state, including the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula and the

San Islands.

As a precaution, the Washington state Transportation Department sent inspectors

to check for damage at the Alaskan Way Viaduct, an aging elevated highway on the

Seattle waterfront, as well as two other bridges.

___

Associated Press writers Gene in Seattle and Charmaine Noronha in

Toronto contributed to this report.