Powerful landslide in northern B.C. registers as earthquake in Alaska
A landslide that occurred in northern B.C. in December 2020 was so powerful it was picked up by Alaskan seismographs as a 2.9 magnitude earthquake.
For the second time since November, a massive landslide in B.C. has been powerful enough to register as an earthquake.
The most recent landslide is believed to have been triggered on Christmas Eve in northern B.C., along the border with Alaska, strong enough for seismographs in Juneau, Alaska to pick it up as a 2.9 magnitude earthquake.
As a result, millions of cubic metres of rock were sent flung thousands of feet into Taku River valley.
TREES SNAPPED LIKE TWIGS: WITNESS
Upon the vast landslide being set off, large trees were snapped, as boulders, with some comparable to the sizes of houses, came tumbling down.
“It’s an ‘oh my God’ situation,” Jamie Tait, from Tundra Helicopters in Atlin, told Global News. He took to the air to check out the size and scale of the damage. “I’ve flown up and down that river for the better part of 40 years and you never see that stuff.”
The December landslide was strong enough for seismographs in Juneau, Alaska to pick it up as a 2.9 magnitude earthquake. Photo: Global News.
According to Tait, the rock appeared to have dropped about 4,000 vertical feet (1,219 metres) before hitting the bottom.
On Nov. 28, a landslide in a remote area on B.C.’s central coast was intense enough to cause a shock equivalent to a 4.9-magnitude earthquake, scientists said.
The rockfall was large enough to break off a sizeable chunk of the mountainside, sending the debris into an already swollen glacial lake. This then sparked a massive wave 70 to 110 metres high.
It was estimated that 7.7 million cubic metres of water, mud and rock exploded downstream and was sent into the inlet, possibly permanently modifying some key salmon-spawning habitat.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be inspecting the Christmas Eve landslide and the consequences of it once weather improves in the spring.
Source: Global News
Thumbnail courtesy of Global News.
