Earthquake hits near Victoria

By Christine Clarridge, The Seattle Times

Published: December 30, 2015, 9:48am

Transit security officers stand outside the Commercial-Broadway Skytrain station after the commuter train system was shut down to check for any possible damage to elevated guideways in Vancouver, B.C., early Wednesday after an earthquake struck off the western coast late Tuesday night. The moderate quake struck at 11:39 p.m. local time Tuesday about 20 kilometres north of Victoria and was felt across much of southern British Columbia. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Victoria, B.C., in Canada about 11:39 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake occurred about 11 miles northeast of Victoria, near North Saanich, and was about 31 miles deep, according to the USGS.

Randy Baldwin, a USGS geophysicist, said the quake was felt for a radius of 150 miles, but he hadn’t heard of any major damage or recorded aftershocks.

It’s not unusual for an earthquake of this size to hit along the West Coast and Vancouver Island because there’s a large subduction zone in the area that produces lots of seismic activity, Baldwin said.

Tom Eades, a 911 dispatcher with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office in Washington, says his agency received lots of calls but no reports of damage or injuries. The agency is in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island in British Columbia and mainland Washington.

The USGS website recorded more than 10,000 reports of the quake being felt.

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