The subduction zone stays active, and the current earthquakes in California can be considered as the evidence that there is a high risk of earthquakes in the western coasts. Vancouver is a western coast city which has saved all this factors. A schematic tectonic map shows how continental crust and ocean plates are in movement, and how the trust fault lines developed in different parts of Vancouver Island. The buffer zones around these fault lines can be considered as the high risk areas when an earthquake happens.
Fig 1: Earthquake Risk Estimation Regarding the Fault Lines Location
Fig 3: Vancouver is located in a subduction zone.
Vancouver Earthquake History:
- ~1700 AD west of Vancouver Island magnitude 8+ (great earthquake; native villages destroyed)
- Dec. 15, 1872 north-central Washington magnitude 7.4 (felt strongly on the Lower Mainland)
- Jan. 11, 1909 San Juan Islands magnitude 6 (felt strongly in Lower Mainland)
- Dec. 6, 1918 Vancouver Island magnitude 7 (damage on west coast of Vancouver Isl.)
- Jan. 24, 1920 San Juan Islands magnitude 5.5 (felt strongly in the Lower Mainland)
- June 23, 1946 Vancouver Island magnitude 7.3 (much damage on central Vancouver Isl.)
- April 13, 1949 Puget Lowland magnitude 7 (much damage in Seattle and Tacoma)
- April 29, 1965 Puget Lowland magnitude 6.5 (much damage in Seattle)
- Nov. 30, 1975 Strait of Georgia magnitude 4.9 (many aftershocks)
- May 16, 1976 southern Gulf Islands magnitude 5.4
- April 14, 1990 Fraser Lowland magnitude 4.9 (many aftershocks)
- May 3, 1996 east of Seattle magnitude 5.5 (felt in the Lower Mainland)