1946 Vancouver Island earthquake - wikipedia 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake UTC time ISC event 898434 USGS - ANSS ComCat Local date June 23, 1946 ( 1946 - 06 - 23 ) Local time 10 : 15 a.m. Magnitude 7.5 M Depth ~ 20 km ( 12 mi ) Epicenter 49 ° 45 ′ N 124 ° 30 ′ W ﻿ / ﻿ 49.75 ° N 124.5 ° W ﻿ / 49.75 ; - 124.5 Areas affected Canada United States Total damage Limited Max. intensity VIII ( Severe ) Casualties 2 killed The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake occurred with a moment magnitude of 7.5 that struck Vancouver Island, on the Coast of British Columbia, Canada, at 10 : 15 a.m. on June 23. The main shock epicenter occurred in the Forbidden Plateau area northwest of Courtenay. While most of the large earthquakes in the Vancouver area occur at tectonic plate boundaries, the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake was a crustal event. Shaking was felt from Portland, Oregon to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. This is one of the most damaging earthquakes in the history of British Columbia, but damage was restricted because there were no heavily populated areas near the epicentre, where severe shaking occurred. This earthquake is Canada 's largest historic onshore earthquake. However, the greatest earthquake in Canadian history recorded by seismometers was the 1949 Queen Charlotte earthquake, an interplate earthquake that occurred on the ocean bottom just off the rugged coast of Graham Island, which reached magnitude 8.1 on the moment magnitude scale. Contents 1 Background and tectonics 2 Damage and casualties 3 See also 4 References 5 External links Background and tectonics The tectonics that caused the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake are poorly known. No surface expression of the offset was noticed, most likely because the epicentre area is very remote and densely forested. A comprehensive examination and computer interpretation of seismic data from over 50 stations has shown that a possible explanation of the earthquake includes a strike - slip fault corresponding to the lengthy axis of Vancouver Island, known as the Beaufort Range Fault. A fault running across Vancouver Island, corresponding to the projection of the underwater Nootka Fault on the British Columbia Coast, is also a possibility but an unlikely one because the earthquake showed no evidence of offsets along a series of highways that follows much of the eastern coastline of Vancouver Island, called Island Highway, and other roads between Courtenay and Campbell River. The estimated depth of the earthquake places it within the continental crust, not at the margin with the Cascadia subduction zone, and certainly not inside the subduction zone itself. Specifically, the earthquake 's epicentre was positioned somewhere in the Forbidden Plateau region, in central Vancouver Island. Damage and casualties House failure in Comox Though very destructive, the earthquake caused only two deaths : Jacob L. Kingston, aged 69, and Daniel Fidler, who was 50. Kingston suffered a heart attack, while Fidler drowned when his dinghy was swamped by a wave. In Vancouver, damage consisted of lofty buildings oscillating violently, and a piece of masonry fell from the local railway station. In addition, within the city, at least one gas line cracked and several power outages occurred. Fires broke out in several chimneys, and at least one swing - span bridge was fractured by the shaking. In the Hotel Vancouver, which housed the elderly and caught on fire, more than 500 war veterans ' families fled the flames. One writer, George Finley, stated that the Lions ' Gate Bridge `` swayed like a leaf '', coinciding with a `` low, rumbling sound, like a deep growl. '' Damage to Bank of Montreal in Port Alberni. The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake demolished 75 % of the chimneys in the communities of Cumberland, Union Bay, and Courtenay and caused extensive damage in Comox, Port Alberni, and Powell River, on the eastern side of the Strait of Georgia. Some chimneys were fractured in Victoria, and people in Victoria and Vancouver experienced great fright, with some seen fleeing into the streets. Landslides created by the earthquake were common throughout Vancouver Island. Land subsidence resulted from the earthquake, most commonly around shorelines on the Strait of Georgia. This included the bottom of Deep Bay which sank between 2.7 m ( 9 ft ) and 25.6 m ( 84 ft ). These measurements were reported by the Canadian Hydrographic Service. Also, a 3 - metre ( 9.8 ft ) ground shift occurred on Read Island. Ships throughout the region were affected, and those on board them during the earthquake described it as similar to having run over a sand bar or striking a rock. Undersea power lines were destroyed in the long narrow Alberni Inlet and near the city of Powell River. All lighthouse keepers in the surrounding area felt the earthquake, and experienced damage including shattered windows and smashed dishes. A tsunami struck the west coast of Texada Island with two waves, the first being 2 metres ( 6 ft 7 in ) high and the second 1 metre ( 3 ft 3 in ) high. The earthquake caused a landslide near Mount Colonel Foster. One fortunate occurrence allowed researchers afterward to review the effects of the earthquake : an aerial photographic survey of Vancouver Island had commenced in 1946, soon after the earthquake, and these photographs were eventually studied by a geoscientist in the late 1970s. South of the Canada -- United States border in Washington State, some chimneys fell at Eastsound on Orcas Island and a concrete mill was damaged at Port Angeles. In Seattle, some damage occurred on upper floors of tall buildings, and one bridge was damaged. The shock was strongly felt at Bellingham, Olympia, Raymond, and Tacoma. The earthquake was powerful enough to knock the needle off a seismograph at the University of Washington, and was sustained for about a minute even in Seattle. The earthquake caused significant movement among structures, moving one 300 - foot ( 91 m ) wall about 35 feet ( 11 m ) and caused one home to shift for 5 feet ( 1.5 m ) off its foundation. The total affected area in Canada and the United States was about 260,000 km ( 100,000 sq mi ). See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake. List of deadly earthquakes since 1900 List of earthquakes in 1946 List of earthquakes in Canada List of earthquakes in the United States References Jump up ^ Engdahl, E.R. ; Vallaseñor, A. ( 2002 ), `` Global seismicity : 1900 -- 1999 '', International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology ( PDF ), Part A, Volume 81A ( First ed. ), Academic Press, p. 678, ISBN 978 - 0124406520 Jump up ^ National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service ( NGDC / WDS ), Significant Earthquake Database, National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA, doi : 10.7289 / V5TD9V7K ^ Jump up to : The M7. 3 Vancouver Island Earthquake of 1946 Retrieved on 2008 - 06 - 11 Jump up ^ The Magnitude 8.1 Queen Charlotte Island Earthquake of August 22, 1949 Retrieved on 2008 - 06 - 11 Jump up ^ W.F. Slawson ; J.C. Savage ( October 1979 ). `` Geodetic deformation associated with the 1946 Vancouver Island, Canada, earthquake ''. Bulletin of the Seismology Association of America. 69 ( 5 ) : 1487 -- 1496. Retrieved 7 January 2009. ^ Jump up to : `` Damage Considerable In Coastal Area of Sunday Quake ''. Ellensburg Daily Record. June 24, 1946. Retrieved January 6, 2009. ^ Jump up to : M Gunn, Angus ( 2008 ). Encyclopedia of Disasters. Westport, Connecticut : Greenwood Press. p. 399. ISBN 978 - 0 - 313 - 34002 - 4. Retrieved 31 July 2010. ^ Jump up to : `` Washington : Earthquake History ''. USGS. 2008 - 07 - 16. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 2009 - 01 - 08. External links The International Seismological Centre has a bibliography and authoritative data for this event. ← Earthquakes in 1946 → Aleutian Islands ( 8.6, April 1 ) † Varto -- Hınıs ( 5.9, May 31 ) † Vancouver Island ( 7.3, June 23 ) Dominican Republic ( 8.1, Aug 4 ) ‡ † Hsinhua ( 6.1, Dec 5 ) † Nankai ( 8.1, Dec 21 ) † † indicates earthquake resulting in at least 30 deaths ‡ indicates the deadliest earthquake of the year Earthquakes in Canada Historical 1663 Charlevoix 1700 Cascadia 1732 Montreal 1872 North Cascades 20th Century 1918 Vancouver Island 1925 Charlevoix -- Kamouraska 1929 Grand Banks 1933 Baffin Bay 1935 Timiskaming 1944 Cornwall -- Massena 1946 Vancouver Island 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands 1985 Nahanni 1988 Saguenay 1989 Ungava 1997 Cap - Rouge 21st Century 2000 Kipawa 2001 Nisqually 2007 -- 2008 Nazko 2010 Central Canada 2012 Haida Gwaii Earthquakes in the United States Historical 1638 New Hampshire 1663 Charlevoix 1700 Cascadia 1755 Cape Ann 1811 -- 12 New Madrid 1838 San Andreas 1857 Fort Tejon 1865 Memphis 1867 Manhattan, Kansas 1868 Hawaii 1868 Hayward 1872 Lone Pine 1872 North Cascades 1886 Charleston 1887 Sonora 1892 Laguna Salada 1892 Vacaville -- Winters 1898 Mare Island 20th - century 1906 San Francisco 1906 Aleutian Islands 1909 Wabash River 1915 Pleasant Valley 1916 Irondale 1918 San Jacinto 1925 Santa Barbara 1931 Valentine 1932 Eureka 1933 Long Beach 1935 Helena 1936 State Line 1940 El Centro 1940 New Hampshire 1944 Cornwall -- Massena 1946 Aleutian Islands 1947 Wisconsin 1948 Desert Hot Springs 1949 Olympia 1952 Kern County 1957 Andreanof Islands 1957 San Francisco 1959 Hebgen Lake 1964 Alaska 1965 Rat Islands 1965 Puget Sound 1968 Illinois 1969 Santa Rosa 1971 San Fernando 1973 Point Mugu 1975 Near Islands 1975 Morris 1975 Hawaii 1979 Coyote Lake 1979 Imperial Valley 1980 Eureka 1983 Coalinga 1983 Borah Peak 1984 Morgan Hill 1986 North Palm Springs 1986 Chalfant Valley 1987 Whittier Narrows 1989 Loma Prieta 1990 Upland 1991 Sierra Madre 1992 Cape Mendocino 1992 Landers 1992 Big Bear 1993 Scotts Mills 1993 Klamath Falls 1994 Northridge 1995 Marathon 1996 Duvall 1998 Pymatuning 1999 Hector Mine 2000 Yountville 21st - century 2001 Nisqually 2002 Denali 2003 Alabama 2003 San Simeon 2006 Gulf of Mexico 2006 Kiholo Bay 2007 Alum Rock 2008 Illinois 2008 Chino Hills 2010 Eureka 2010 Baja California 2010 Indiana 2011 Colorado 2011 Virginia 2011 Oklahoma 2014 Aleutian Islands 2014 Southeast Alaska 2014 South Napa 2016 Oklahoma 2016 Hawthorne 2018 Alaska Swarms 2001 Enola 2008 Reno 2010 -- 11 Guy - Greenbrier 2012 Brawley 2009 -- 18 Oklahoma Earthquakes in Washington ( state ) 1700 Cascadia ( 8.7 -- 9.2 ) 1872 North Cascades ( 6.5 -- 7.0 ) 1946 Vancouver Island ( 7.3 ) 1949 Olympia ( 6.7 ) 1965 Puget Sound ( 6.7 ) 1996 Duvall ( 5.1 ) 2001 Nisqually ( 6.8 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1946_Vancouver_Island_earthquake&oldid=832158224 '' Categories : 1946 in Canada 1946 natural disasters in the United States Earthquakes in Washington ( state ) 1946 earthquakes History of Vancouver Island Earthquakes in British Columbia Alberni Valley 1946 in British Columbia 1946 in Washington ( state ) Hidden categories : EQ articles needing UTC timestamp Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch فارسی Edit links This page was last edited on 24 March 2018, at 05 : 04. 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Question: when was the last time vancouver had an earthquake
Answer: 1946