Seismic activity poses one more threat to those who choose to endure cold, mud, mosquitoes and live in the Subarctic. We know Mother nature is a player there, not always a friendly one. She has created a breathtaking part of the world, but she makes those who live there pay to experience it. She fights back with terrain, with climate. And sometimes the earth itself exacts the payment, a seismic payment, an earthquake.
A “Ring of Fire” circles the Pacific Ocean from the southern tip of South America, north past Central America, the west coast of the United States, and Canada’s west coast. It turns west under Alaska then follows the Aleutian Chain across to Japan. From there it turns south past the Philippines and Australia and on far south into the Pacific. Nearly all the world’s seismic activity, its earthquakes, occurs along that line.
The northernmost arc of the ring, bordering Northern Canada and Alaska, adds earthquakes and consequent tsunami’s to mother nature’s arsenal in the Subarctic.
Three of the largest earthquakes in Canada’s history occurred along the Queen Charlotte Fault off the coast of British Columbia. May 1929, August 1949, June 1970. People felt the 1949 quake from Yukon Territory all the way south to Oregon. On the island of Haida Gwaii the quake toppled chimneys—and cows. On shore windows shattered and buildings swayed.
And in Alaska, under the Prince William Sound region, the enormous Pacific plate and the equally enormous North American Plate have wrestled since time immemorial. Alaska has 11% of the world’s earthquakes, and three of the six largest earthquakes in world history occurred in Alaska.
I’ll have more on this…