Where is Metro Vancouver vulnerable during a major earthquake?
When the next major earthquake hits the Metro Vancouver area, its effect will vary wildly throughout the region, with some neighbourhoods being hit hard and some left relatively unscathed.
Much of this phenomenon has to do with how seismic waves move, and what lies beneath our feet.
“Vancouver has a highly variable geology,” said Dr. John Clague of the department of earth sciences at Simon Fraser University. “The best areas of Vancouver if you’re really worried about earthquake – which we all should be – are areas that are founded on bedrock.”
Bedrock is considered the gold standard for solid ground, and that’s where the motion from tremors would be less severe.
The downtown core, Stanley Park, Queen Elizabeth Park, and parts of the North Shore are examples of places on bedrock.
The areas where people would feel the most shaking, or amplification, are neighbourhoods built on relic glacial sediments, Clague says.
They are found all over Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, and tremors would feel two to three times more intense in those locations that they would on bedrock.
People living in low-lying areas such as Richmond would also experience greater swaying.
“And that can be very destructive of course, because you know the higher, the more intense, the more powerful the ground motion, the more damage you’re going to experience,” said Clague.
City engineers and scientists are busy mapping out a clearer picture of which areas are most vulnerable in a quake – work that will be invaluable when updating building codes, deciding what to construct, and what to retrofit for increased seismic safety.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.