A trio of new earthquakes struck B.C.’s central coast on Friday.
The most powerful was an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6, near Bella Bella, B.C., according to Earthquakes Canada. The quake was originally measured at 5.1 earlier Friday.
The earthquake struck at approximately 5:58 a.m. local time, and there have been no reports of damage.
Earthquakes Canada reported that the quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported two smaller quakes Friday morning, one measured at magnitude 4.6 and one at magnitude 4.7.
The USGS reported the smaller quakes took place a few kilometers to the east and west of the larger tremor, one at 5:51 a.m. and one at 6:02 a.m. local time.
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Centre said no tsunami was expected from the quakes.
WATCH: Geophysicist says not ‘particularly concerned’ about B.C. quakes, not related to California quake
Not unusual
North Vancouver geophysicist and disaster researcher Mika McKinnon said the latest tremors are nothing to worry about.
“I am not particularly concerned. We are a very active seismic area,” she said.
“As long as they keep getting smaller I’m happy.”
McKinnon said Friday’s quakes were unrelated to the magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck California on Thursday, noting that they occurred thousands of kilometres apart and on completely different fault systems.
She said it was more likely that Friday’s events were aftershocks from the magnitude 5.8 earthquake that hit near Bella Bella on Wednesday.
“So far, everything has been dropping down in magnitude, they’ve been happening less frequently, we’re definitely following what looks like a normal aftershock sequence right now,” McKinnon said.
“So far everything is behaving exactly like we expect it to.”
McKinnon noted Wednesday’s magnitude 5.8 quake would have been powerful enough to cause damage if it had happened under a city, but fortunately took place in an area with a low population density.
There have been a number of earthquake reports in this region since the beginning of June, ranging from 3.1 to 5.8 in magnitude.
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