Earthquake Early Warning - Blog

Coastal First Nations - Great Bear Initiative (CFN-GBI) is installing eight Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) sensor stations, within CFN-GBI communities and at the Hakai Institute on Calvert Island, BC. So far, five stations have been installed, at Nuxalk Nation's community at Q'umk'uts' (Bella Coola), Gitxaala, Gitgaat, Metlakatla, and Hakai. The stations, funded by Natural Resources Canada, will expand the area of coverage of the national EEW system along the northern mainland coast of British Columbia, and improve alert times for the region, allowing people more time to take protective actions.

The project will also improve the communities' resilience to earthquakes, through educational efforts including how community members can protect themselves when they receive EEW alerts. This initiative is being coordinated by Patrika McEvoy (Kwaa Tsaaps), whose responsibilities include establishing suitable locations for the sensors stations within each community, acting as liaison to the communities, and installing and testing the EEW equipment. Patrika has received training from NRCan and the supplier of the earthquake sensors, Nanometrics, to enable her to do this work.

Last week, the Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity conference was held in Vancouver, BC, and attended by over 500 emergency managers and planners, and natural hazard scientists. Natural Resources Canada's (NRCan) Alison Bird presented on the national Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system, in development, in a session co-hosted with Emergency Management BC. The audience was excited to learn of this coming technology and how the EEW alerts could be used to reduce the impacts of earthquakes. There was considerable discussion on how the alerts could trigger devices to stop trains, open doors, and close valves, plus alert people to protect themselves. Nicky Hastings gave a plenary talk on the new Risk Profiler (RP) website, which provides earthquake risk data, including for various scenario events – useful for emergency managers and planners, plus engineers and the public. Julie Van de Valk and Cathryn Hale also hosted an NRCan booth, giving numerous attendees who visited the booth more opportunities to discuss in detail EEW and RP.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake which struck the west coast of Haida Gwaii in 2012. The earthquake caused strong shaking across the islands and the adjacent mainland, thankfully resulting in only minor damage in the islands' communities, including cracked foundations and walls, a few toppled chimneys, and some broken windows.

The earthquake triggered a tsunami which struck the west coast of Haida Gwaii and reached as far as Kahalui, Hawaii. No one on Haida Gwaii witnessed the tsunami, however, as there are no communities on the islands' western coasts. Also, as the earthquake occurred in cold, rainy October, no one was travelling in the Gwaii Haanas region, popular with kayakers and campers. In the weeks that followed, NRCan researchers visited inlets where modelling had suggested waves could have been significant. They found clear evidence that waves had reach about 7m in elevation: seaweed hanging from the branches of trees (photo above left), fish on the forest floor, and logs which had been floated from their usual resting place. What has become known as Earthquake Point was scoured by the tsunami waves up to a height of approximately 13m. Debris from the Tohoku-Oki, Japan tsunami in 2011, such as fishing floats and plastic bottles, had also floated across the Pacific Ocean and been tossed onto Haida Gwaii by the 2012 tsunami. This was the world's largest tsunami that year.

As we mark the anniversary of this event, NRCan has been installing Earthquake Early Warning stations on Haida Gwaii (photo above right), within the islands' communities and at several other locations. One station is on Hotspring Island, where the hot springs stopped flowing as a result of the 2012 earthquake; they have recently reappeared, to the delight of visitors to the island. Another station is at Cape St. James, at the southern tip of the archipelago, where equipment has to be especially robust as the cape is victim to severe storms and strong winds. The stations will work together in a regional network that will warn of strong, potentially damaging earthquakes, so that people can take protective actions, in most cases to Drop, Cover, and Hold on.

Today, nearly 700,000 people across Canada and over 45 million across the world practised the safe response to earthquakes: to Drop, Cover, and Hold on (DCHO). It is important to practise the DCHO action, so that it becomes instinctive to move to a safe location when an Earthquake Early Warning alert is received or shaking is felt.

In British Columbia, a ShakeOut event was held at Simon Fraser University's campus on Burnaby Mountain, with video participation by First Nations' communities around the province. This was preceded by a public “Ask the Experts” webinar, yesterday evening, including NRCan seismologists John Cassidy and Alison Bird.

In Quebec, short videos have been produced to educate people of the threat of earthquakes in the province.

In the Yukon, a series of public webinars was held, on earthquakes and the various ways to prepare for the natural hazards which impact the territory.

Last week, NRCan's field crew were grateful for blue skies and calm winds as they worked on Haida Gwaii. On Wednesday, a helicopter delivered an Earthquake Early Warning station kit on a sling (left hand photo) to a site in Gwaii Haanas Park. Lisa, Mingzhou, Scott, and James then installed the station's seismometer and other equipment (right hand photo). A satellite dish will send data to NRCan datacentres, and solar panels will provide the power to run the station. NRCan is working with the Council of the Haida Nation to ensure that the sites being used for these stations are in suitable locations.