A 7.5-magnitude earthquake 100 kilometers off the coast of Alaska early Saturday morning triggered the second tsunami warning for the north coast of B.C. in less than three months.
A 7.7-magnitude quake on Haida Gwaii in October also triggered a tsunami warning.
Fortunately in both cases the temblors didn't cause significant damage, injuries or massive waves - like the deadly surge in Japan in March, 2011 and the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
The earthquakes do raise some concerns about the readiness of B.C.'s coast in case of a damaging quake and/or tsunami.
Many residents in coastal communities found out about the tsunami warning hours after the warning was issued, and then canceled, through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The Canadian Press quoted Bella Bella resident Keith Benjamin's tweet, “Wake up, check iPhone ... Slept through #Tsunami warning...”
Benjamin wasn't the only one to sleep through the warning.
If a major earthquake were to trigger a tsunami near Haida Gwaii or Alaska, residents would only have minutes to a couple hours at most to reach high ground. Finding out over breakfast the next morning is not soon enough.
The Good Friday Earthquake on March 27, 1964 in Prince William Sound, Alaska registered a magnitude of 9.2 - the second-largest quake ever measured with a seismograph.
That earthquake triggered an 8.2 metre high tsunami which wiped the village of Chenega off the map.
It's been almost 50 years since the Good Friday Earthquake and nobody knows when or where the next "big one" is coming.
Why does this matter in Prince George?
A 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Haida Gwaii wouldn't do more than knock a few plates off shelves in Prince George. And if there is ever a tsunami big enough to reach P.G. then life on Earth as we know it has ended.
But Prince George has close economic ties to two ports on the north B.C. coast: Prince Rupert and Kitimat.
If an 8.2 metre tsunami hit the Port of Prince Rupert, it would severe access to markets in China, Japan and Korea for months or years while the port rebuilt. Asian markets have surpassed the U.S. as consumers of B.C. wood products and losing quick access to them could cause layoffs and mill closures throughout the interior.
Prince George's ties to Kitimat could increase substantially if Enbridge gets approval to build its proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and Apache Canada proceeds with construction of the Pacific Trial Pipeline to carry liquid natural gas from Summit Lake to a marine terminal in Kitimat.
If an 8.2 metre tsunami were to hit the coast at the right angle, it could send a surge of water down the Douglas Channel to Kitimat. The wave would accelerate and increase in height as tonnes of water rushed into the constricted space of the channel.
The resulting wave could pick up an oil tanker like a child's toy and slam it into Enbridge's office at the City Centre Mall in Kitimat. The tugboats Enbridge plans to use to maneuver the tankers will be much lighter, so they might make it part way up the hill to the one, small fire hall which serves the town.
If a liquid natural gas tanker was docked at Apache's proposed marine terminal at the time, the potential scope of the disaster rises substantially. The Halifax Explosion of 1917 might drop to the third-largest accidental man-made explosion.
While both projects undoubtably have contingency plans for earthquakes and tsunamis, many of them likely require some of the terminal staff, tanker crews and first responders to be alive. Without an effective tsunami warning system, they'll just become the first victims.
-- Associate news editor Arthur Williams
