Fault line under Vancouver Island deeper than previously thought
New research led by Simon Fraser University professor Andrew Calvert says that the fault line between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Northwest is seven kilometers deeper than was previously thought.
The fault lines under the Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula run south of Vancouver Island and are 27 to 42 kilometers deep, not the 25 to 35 previously believed.
Calvert said it’s unclear what the implications of the discovery are but said it could mean that the mega quake expected to hit the west coast could occur beneath the Olympic Peninsula, just south of Vancouver Island.
Calvert noted that a major earthquake hits British Columbia about every 500 years. The last major quake was recorded in 1700.
The findings of the report were published this summer in Nature Geoscience.
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