The main epicenter was between Grande Prairie and Grande Cache, about 93 kilometers southeast of Grande Prairie, and sat roughly 7.1 kilometers deep, according to Natural Resources Canada. Interestingly, another earthquake hit Sechelt, B.C., on Friday after lunch—a 4.7 shaker, downgraded from an initial 5.1 estimate. Meanwhile, about an hour earlier on Friday, a quake near Redwood City, California, clocked in at a similar magnitude, around 4.8. Though earthquakes strong enough to be felt are fairly rare in Alberta, there’s been a noticeable uptick in seismic activity over the past few months, and researchers are definitely keeping an eye on it.
The earthquake likely lasted just one or two seconds, and the movement can be described as “short and sharp.”
A 3.6 magnitude earthquake last week in B.C. shook the ground in Victoria, Sidney and parts of Vancouver Island. On December 5th, The 7.0 magnitude earthquake occurred in the North Pacific Ocean at 10:44 a.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, December 5, 2024.
By the way, the largest earthquake ever recorded in Alberta was a 5.6 on November 30, 2022. The quake was centered near Reno, a small hamlet in northwest Alberta. It was felt as far away as Calgary, about 700 km from the epicenter. Seismologists locate more than 4000 earthquakes every year in Canada
and the surrounding areas. Most of these earthquakes are smaller than magnitude 3 (M3) and are not felt but that doesn’t mean Canada hasn’t has some significant quakes over the years.
In fact, in 1949, a 8.1 quake shook the The Queen Charlotte Fault near a place called Haida Gwaii in BC and is the site of the three largest earthquakes in Canada’s history, This fault, known as a transform fault, separates two plates that are sliding past each other. The San Andreas Fault in California is another well-known example of a transform fault. The 1949 earthquake was felt as far north as the Yukon Territory and as far south as Oregon, U.S. Damage was limited due to the very sparse population. Nonetheless, on Haida Gwaii, chimneys toppled and cows were knocked off their feet. On the mainland, windows shattered and buildings swayed.
