Earthquake shakes up the coast (By: Derrick Chien)
The night of Wednesday, October the 27th just after 8pm, an earthquake originated 17.5 km underground in the Haida Gwaii region. Surprisingly, the intensity of 7.7 was not enough for most people to sense, and impressively, no injuries were reported to be caused by this natural catastrophe, none at all.
The trembling caused a few infrastructure failures, but none of them were too bad.
The earthquake lasted for about 40 seconds, which is remarkably shorter than most earthquakes of the magnitude last.
After the earthquake, tsunami-warning alert sirens were sounding all over the coasts, although experts did not expect any intensive waves. People near the bay reported seeing waves as tall as 69 centimeters above sea level. It is said that people at sea are still exposed to potential danger by aftershocks and small tsunamis.
It was unusual and remarkable at the same time, that people all around the world knew about the incident, while people in Canada, especially those in the lower mainland, including us, had not felt it and less heard of it. Broadcast stations in Asia, Europe, and even South America were covering the event as soon as it happened, adding much more drama to the situation, and filling those in other nations with fake terror.
For our beloved school facility, the earthquake did not leave scratch one, but became the only theme there was to talk about for the following days. Aftershocks till days after have occurred, and none of them had damaged the school either.
Thankfully, there should be no fear if something like this took place during school time, because of the earthquake drill students and teachers were guided through within the school on October, where students and the personal were instructed to stay protected under their desks, or other available possibilities.
Some people speculate the “Big One” earthquake, which is said to happen every 500 years in Canada, will once again devastate North America. The last one was known to have unleashed extreme damage in the year 1700, with a magnitude of approximately 9.0. Although it is highly unlikely to happen, we will be prepared, with the new earthquake school procedures.