Earthquakes Canada Receives Hundreds of Reports in BC After 4.9 Magnitude Quake

Earthquakes Canada says a 4.9 magnitude earthquake was recorded on Dec. 17 afternoon and public reports poured in from hundreds of kilometres away from the event’s epicentre. John Cassidy, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, says people over a “very wide region” of the province have reported feeling the earthquake, which hit just before 3:30 in the afternoon. Mr. Cassidy says the quake was felt by people across northern and central Vancouver Island, and as far away as Kelowna, more than 350 kilometres from the quake’s epicentre. He says it hit a remote region about 222 kilometres north-northwest of Vancouver. Mr. Cassidy says seismic events in that part of the province are “relatively rare,” with the last quake in the area around the same magnitude hitting in 2017. He says the quake on Dec. 17  wasn’t a complete surprise since the province’s coastal areas are an active earthquake zone, but the largest and most frequent earthquakes occur offshore....