Scientists Still Gathering Quake Info Southwest of Prince George

Sunday, October 21, 2007 05:34 AM

Map (courtesy Natural resources Canada) shows area of "swarm" of quakes, west of the Nazco cone, and south of Narcosli Lake

Prince George, B.C. - Scientists are still in the area west of the Nazko Cone, ( about 100 km west of Quesnel) monitoring the recent earthquakes which have been taking place about 25 kilometers below the surface of the earth.

As was first reported on Opinion250 more than two weeks ago ( see Earthquakes Shudder Region Southwest of Prince George) the first of what scientists are now calling a "swarm" of small earthquakes hit the region October 9th.

Eight microearthquakes of magnitude 2-3 occurred on October 10 and 11, and more than 100 tremors of less than magnitude 2 have occurred between October 10 and October 18.

None of these quakes have been felt by people. Analysis of these seismic data indicated that the earthquakes were occurring about 20 km west of Nazko Cone, at approximately 25 km beneath the earth’s surface.

The cause of this localized increase in seismic activity is unclear. In order to more easily pinpoint the location and depth of future tremors, Natural Resources Canada personnel are currently in the Nazko Cone area installing additional monitoring equipment. They are hoping to have more accurate data by the end of this week.

The Nazco Cone is a dormant volcano in the Anahim belt, and last erupted about 7 thousand years ago. Scientists do not think there is any worry of any eruption being imminent.

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Posted on Sunday, October 21, 2007 05:34 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Bridge on October 21 2007 10:01 AM

I guess its not strong enough to shake up of our politicians to relize their is a real world out there.

Cheers

Posted by: northman on October 21 2007 7:16 PM

Its not close enough to vancouver and victoria for them to care.

Posted by: Harbinger on October 21 2007 8:19 PM

Treaty signed on that land? Jest wunderin'.

Posted by: Timetrvlr on October 21 2007 10:00 PM

I live in Quesnel, directly East of the seismic activity in the ash fallout zone if it ever erupted, so naturally I'm quite interested in what is going on there.

I read that if it erupted, it would not be an explosive type of volcano like Mt. St. Helens, but rather a lava flow type as the Hawaiian volcanoes are. I'm curious how a vulcanologist would know that?

I know that this sort of thing can happen here as it did in Mexico when a volcano erupted in a farmers corn field back when I was a kid.

Posted by: northman on October 22 2007 12:59 PM

They know because they have geological models from existing volcanoes. One of the key indicators of volcanoe nature is gases they expell. The volcanoes that produce large amounts of gasses are the ones that are likely to cause a massive explosive eruption. From what i have read so far these quakes arent producing any gasses yet. They can also tell by the data colleced from rock samples that came from previous eruptions in the area of what kind of volcanoes were active here before. And that still is an edcuated guess at best. Only time will tell what happens from here.

Posted by: Chadermando on October 22 2007 2:07 PM

When it does happen I'd like to head out there to camp out and watch, maybe bring a few marshmellows to roast on the lava flows....