This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to improve your website experience and provide more personalized services to you, both on this website and through other media. To find out more about the cookies we use, see our Privacy Policy. We won't track your information when you visit our site. But in order to comply with your preferences, we'll have to use just one tiny cookie so that you're not asked to make this choice again.

More than 100 aftershocks in wake of twin B.C. earthquakes

At least two buildings remain closed in the Yukon after Monday's pair of strong earthquakes rattled the region.

So far, more than 100 aftershocks - some as strong as magnitude 5.7 - have been recorded across northern B.C., the Yukon, and the Alaskan Panhandle since the quakes.

The first tremor was rated Magnitude 6.2 by the U.S. Geological Survey, which said it struck at a very shallow depth of only 2.2 km early Monday morning. The second was even shallower, less than a kilometre beneath the surface in more or less the same area and as strong as magnitude 6.3.

 

Residents said on social media the quake was strong enough to wake them up, and knock items off shelves. The shaking was felt as far away as Skagway in Alaska and Whitehorse in Yukon, where power outages were reported.

Elijah Smith Elementary school, which was closed in the wake of the earthquakes, reopened Tuesday morning, but a four-story office building in downtown Whitehorse remains closed. The Lynn Building suffered major cracks to the outside and foundation, as well as interior damage.

Ross River School awaits a technical inspection to see if the school needs to remain closed.

City of Whitehorse officials told a council meeting Monday night that all major city buildings and some major landmarks have been assessed and ruled "good to go."

British Colombia is Canada's most seismically active province, with its location at the edge of the Pacific Rim. Canada's most powerful earthquake struck there in the 1700s, a Magnitude 9.0 monster that killed thousands of First Nations people and generated a tsunami that reached as far as Japan.

Share This Post

related posts

On Top