This news from Canada.com is interesting ... because the last time California got hit was 28 months ago (2*14) on September 28th in Parkfield, CA. (6.0) and that was exactly the same time the Cascadia fault moved ... please read article ...

B.C. braces for possible earthquake
Judith Lavoie
CanWest News Service; Victoria Times Colonist

Saturday, February 03, 2007

VICTORIA -- Check the emergency supplies, first aid kits and flashlights, there is an increased probability of a major earthquake hitting B.C.'s south coast during the next week.

Seismologists at the Geological Survey of Canada, based at the Pacific Geoscience Centre in Sidney, B.C., are tracking a series of tremors that started in Puget Sound along the U.S. West Coast three days ago and are working their way up Vancouver Island.

The low-level shaking, which can be picked up only by sensitive equipment installed up the coast by U.S. and Canadian governments, rumbled through southern Vancouver Island Thursday, said seismologist Garry Rogers.

"It's like a giant tear that moves 15 to 20 kilometres a day," he said.

The tremors are caused by a tear in the bottom plate of the Cascadia fault. Pacific Geoscience Centre scientists discovered in 2003 that the tremor activity happens regularly every 14 months, and so can be accurately forecasted.

"Vancouver Island, the edge of the continent, is usually storing up energy like a giant spring. Vancouver Island is usually moving towards Ottawa and now it is moving towards Japan," Rogers said.

The direction change of the sticking and slipping will continue for about a week. The plates will then start behaving normally again.

"For some reason, the bottom portion fails every 14 months. It sticks for 14 months and slips for a week or two, right under Vancouver Island," Rogers said.

The question, however, is how much extra stress the episodes add to the plates, and how much closer it brings B.C. to the "big one."

"What it is doing is adding straws to the camel's back, and one of these straws is going to break the camel's back. Right now, we're in the process of adding a humongous straw, and we don't know how many more we need to break the camel's back," Rogers said.

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007

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