Curtains and telephone cords swayed in Squamish on Friday (Sept. 9) during a strong earthquake whose epicentre was off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) survey reported that the temblor, which measured magnitude 6.4 on the Richter scale, occurred at 12:41 p.m. The quake's epicentre was 138 kilometres (86 miles) west of Campbell River and 25.9 km (16.1 miles) below the Earth's surface, according to a USGS online report.
Beryl Taylor, deputy coordinator for the Squamish Emergency Program, said, "That's why I guess we felt the rolling because it's quite a ways off and quite deep. I'm not quite sure what the proper term for that is, but we would refer to that as a rolling quake."
The magnitude was initially reported as 6.7, but was changed to 6.4 after a geologist's review of the data.
Howe Sound Secondary School officials safely evacuated students from the school just after the 'quake occurred, Principal Christine Perkins wrote in an email to parents.
"The school experienced shocks from the earthquake on Vancouver Island just prior to 1 p.m. today, Sept. 9, 2011," Perkins wrote. "All students and staff were evacuated safely. After confirmation from public authorities we returned to normal school operations."
The earthquake's epicentre is in the area of the Juan de Fuca fault, which runs between what geologists call the Juan de Fuca and North American tectonic plates to form what's known as the Cascadia subduction zone. It's an area where small- to medium-sized earthquakes occur quite frequently.
Some Squamish residents felt a small, magnitude-3.3 earthquake on Aug. 11, The Chief reported.
