tsunami Archives – Malaspina Naturalists

The advertising was great – Thank You!
– T. Greenwood

Despite the earlier start and different venue, it was a fair turn-out
– A. Bryant

This map shows two weeks worth of small earthquakes (yellow circles) and five years worth of large (pink circles, magnitude >4).
– Natural Resources Canada

A wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after the magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck the area March 11, 2011. Picture taken March 11, 2011. REUTERS/Mainichi Shimbun(JAPAN - Tags: DISASTER ENVIRONMENT IMAGES OF THE DAY) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. JAPAN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN JAPAN - RTR2JTXO

This was a big one (magnitude 8.9). A huge wave rolls over the tsunami barrier at Miyako City, Japan, on March 11, 2011.
– M. Shimbun (REUTERS)

Debris crushed a car outside the Christchurch Catholic Cathedral after an earthquake rocked Christchurch, New Zealand, Tuesday, February 22, 2011. The 6.3-magnitude quake hit at the height of a busy workday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and killing dozens of people in one of the country's worst natural disasters. # AP Photo/NZPA, David Wethey

Another big one (magnitude 6.3). Damage to the Christchurch Catholic Cathedral, New Zealand, February 22, 2011
– D. Wethey (NZPA)

Workers survey the damage as they begin to clean up the damage to a church in Gracefield, Quebec following an earthquake Wednesday June 23, 2010. The June earthquake that shook parts of Quebec and Ontario rattled more than just the ground. Within minutes of the 5.0-magnitude quake, people were furiously posting accounts on social media sites like Twitter, but official information was impossible to access online. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

This is magnitude 5.1 Workers survey the damage in Gracefield, Quebec, 2010.
– A. Wyld (CANADIAN PRESS)

Earthquakes happen for a variety of reasons. The Juan de Fuca oceanic plate is trying to move under the North American plate. As a result, the South Coast of B.C. can get both megathrust earthquakes off the coast as well as shallow earthquakes just below some of the major cities.
– Natural Resources Canada

Earthquakes in southwestern BC are spread across broad bands, rather than laying tightly along fault-lines as seen in California. The earthquakes on this map are occurring within both the North American Plate, and the Juan de Fuca plate.
– Natural Resources Canada

Most of these would go un-noticed. Here’s Alison with a seismograph (i.e., a machine designed to notice the unnoticeable!)
– Victoria Times-Colonist

Why the “Big One” is going to come….sometime
– U.S. Geological Survey

ARCHIV: A ferry stranded on a building is seen in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011, two days after a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami hit the country's east coast. An einem gewoehnlichen Freitagnachmittag vor vier Monaten begann die Erde in Japan zu beben. Mit dem verheerenden Erdbeben und dem darauffolgenden Tsunami am 11. Maerz nahm die Tragoedie ihren Lauf, die sich fuer Japan zu einem atomaren Albtraum entwickelte. Die ersten 24 Stunden nach Beginn der Krise in dem durch die Naturkatastrophe verwuesteten Atomkraftwerk Fukushima-Daiichi waren entscheidend. (zu dapd-Text) (AP Photo/The Yumiuri Shimbun) JAPAN OUT, CREDIT MANDATORY Foto: Anonymous/YUMIURI SHIMBUN/dapd

The biggest earthquake to hit Japan since records began 140 years ago struck in 2011, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings – and left this ferry perched on a roof!
– Anonymous (AP)

Toya Chiba, a reporter for local newspaper Iwate Tokai Shimbun, is swept by a tsunami at Kamaishi port, Iwate prefecture which was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, in this photo taken on March 11, 2011 and released by Kamaishi Port Office via Kyodo on April 14, 2011. Chiba managed to survive the tsunami by grabbing a dangling rope and climbing onto a coal heap around 8 meters high after being swept away for about 30 meters, Kyodo news reports. Picture taken March 11, 2011. Mandatory Credit REUTERS/Kamaishi Port Office via Kyodo/Handout

This man, a local reporter, miraculously escaped
– Kamaishi Port Office (REUTERS)

Japan suffered a “perfect storm” of earthquake, tsunamii, fire, and the Fukeshima nuclear event after a massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan in 2011
– A. Kyodo (REUTERS)

Container cargoes gets displaced in Sendai, northern Japan, Saturday, March 12, 2011. Japan launched a massive military rescue operation Saturday after a giant, quake-fed tsunami killed hundreds of people and turned the northeastern coast into a swampy wasteland, while authorities braced for a possible meltdown at a nuclear reactor. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Unbelievable power.
– I. Inouye (AP)

Streets are flooded after a tsunami and earthquake in Kesennuma city, Miyagi Prefecture, March 11, 2011. The biggest earthquake to hit Japan since records began 140 years ago struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings on fire. REUTERS/YOMIURI(JAPAN - Tags: DISASTER) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. JAPAN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN JAPAN - RTR2JR49

If you felt an earthquake, don’t wait – get to high ground – the fellow seen on the roof at top-left had the right idea
– Anonymous (REUTERS)

If you FEEL an earthquake, do this!
Alison demonstrating the classic “duck and cover” approach to surviving an earthquake
– A. Bird (TWITTER)

Alison Bird – “Earthquakes of Coastal BC”
by Andrew Bryant, 14 Sept 2017.

Alison Bird works as Earthquake Seismologist for Natural Resources Canada, and is based in Saanich. Our club, in partnership with the Powell River Regional Emergency Program (PRREP), invited her to come talk to us about her area of expertise – earthquakes – and she graciously obliged.

Beginning with the amazing story of how researchers were able to date, to the day, a massive earthquake that hit waaaay back in 1700, Alison took us through the basics. What are fault-lines, subduction zones, and plate tectonics? How big is big? An excellent one-page primer can be found here.

Using images from around the world, Alison stressed that while the forces unleased in an earthquake truly baffle the imagination, the damage suffered largely depends on more mundane things. Location is important (obviously) but soil types, vertical topography, and ocean basin topography are all of great importance – as are building codes, enforcement, retrofitting, and keeping an emergency kit.

Will the “big one” happen? Most assuredly. Can we predict when it happen? No. Can we mininize risks, through attention to detail? Yes.

A talk not to be missed.

The Cascadia Mega-Tsunami (given time-zones, this occurred at around 9:00 PM local time, 26 January 1700)