Published on : Monday, October 22, 2018
“The first one, which was a 6.6 is called the foreshock. The second one, which is the main earthquake, is the strongest one. The main earthquake is followed by an aftershock, which is the one that was a 6.5. This is standard for earthquakes to happen in groups of three like this,” CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford said.
The preliminary 6.6-magnitude earthquake was about 135 miles southwest of Port Hardy, a town on the northeastern end of Vancouver Island. This was 6.8 miles deep and occurred at 10:39 p.m. local time, as per US Geological Survey.
This was followed, about 35 minutes later, by the 6.8-magnitude quake centered about 12 miles closer to Port Hardy at a depth of about 6 miles, the USGS said. The last quake struck six minutes later and measured 6.5 magnitude.
No damage has been reported by the earthquakes. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has also ruled out tsunami threat.
Notably, the area hit by earthquake lies on the Ring of Fire which is prone to seismic activity as the Pacific Plate pushes against smaller tectonic plates.