January 19, 2005 . | | News Page 6 Tsunamis Will Come to B.C. Coast Scientists say that a Pacific Ocean earthquake would send waves crashing into west coast NEWS. Grads Cameroon Bound UNBC grads John Antill and Craig Paulson are heading to Cameroon this month to assist with ccotourism an agro- forestry-projects in the Bimbia Bonadikombo community for- est. Their project is being sup- ported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Antill graduat- ed from UNBC in 2000 with a BSc in Gcography while Paulson earned his BSc in Natural Resources Management this past spring. They will be in Cameroon for five months. Moose Research at UNBC Moose collisions with vchi- cles are happening as often as 30 times per ycar within Prince George city limits. That was onc finding of a recent research project led by Roy Rea. The project involved col- lecting information from vari- ous sources - the RCMP, ICBC, the City of Prince George, tow truck companics, local insurance brokers, and others - because official records of collisions between vehicles and moose aren’t col- lected if the accident happens within city limits. In fact, Roy found that his research was globally unique: most of the _ “research on the topic explores collisions on highways. He-has. recommended that he city set up an online GIS database so that any agency or resident could log accidents, or cven- sightings. More comprehensive information could help the city implement more effective counter-measures in the future. School Recruits More and More students The official enrolment ! headcount for fall 2004 semes- ter was 3664 students at UNBC., 64.5% of students are from northern BC, 26% are from southern BC, and 9.5% of students are from outside of BC, and nearly 10% of UNBEC students are self declared as aboriginal stu- dents. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED The idyllic B.C. coast could be ravaged by a powerful tsunami. On December 26, 2004, a Richter 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia triggered a tsunami that devastated south-east Asia. As a result, many in B.C. are re-evaluating the province’s tsunami response strategies. By Bryna HALLAM THE MARTLET (UNIVERSITY QF VicToriA) VICTORIA (CUP) — The devasta- tion produced by the tsunamis in southern Asia and eastern Africa has caused many Canadians to look ner- vously to our long Pacific coastline and ask: could it happen here? “Yes,” confirmed Alison Bird, an earthquake seismologist at the Geological Survey of Canada’s office in Sidney, B.C. “We are going to have a megathrust earthquake sometime.” There is evidence that. megathrust earthquakes occur every few hundred years. The last one to occur off British Columbia’s coast was in 1700, and stress is building for another. It is like- ly another earthquake will strike with- in the next few hundred years, accord- ing to seismologists. As Bird points out, the more time goes by, the more likely it is one will happen. “It could be tomorrow,” she said. “We can’t predict it.” In a megathrust earthquake, one tectonic plate slips under another. The province is susceptible because it lies along the area where the Juan de Fuca Plate is slipping under the North American Plate. Because the plates are so large, these earthquakes are among the world’s largest and often result in magnitudes above 9.0 on the Richter seale. These earthquakes often result in undersea landslides and the vertical displace- ment of water, which in turn trigger (sunamis. Megathrust earthquakes are charac- terized by stronger and longer-lasting shaking than smaller earthquakes. There are estimates the shaking in Sumatra during the recent earthquake lasted as long as seven minutes. According to Bird, shaking inland and farther from the epicentre could last even longer but would be slower and less:sharp. Following an earthquake far out in the Pacific Ocean, it could take hours for tsunami waves to reach B.C. But the Canadian Hydrographic Service predicts some communities along the west coast of Vancouver Island could be hit by huge waves with as little as 15 minutes’ warning. Models show waves as high as five to 10 metres — the height of a three- to four-storey building —— would crash into the west coast of Vancouver Island, says CHS spokesperson |red Stephenson. This is similar to the size of waves that did so much damage in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. By the time waves reach Victoria, speculated Stephenson, they would likely be between one and four metres high. As the water moved through the Straight of Georgia, the energy would dissipate and the waves would be smaller. Stephenson maintains the best way for people to prepare for a’ tsunami is to be educated about the phenome- non. “Uducation is going to be the biggest bang for the buck-over the next 10 or 100 years,” he said, noting while the outer coast of Vancouver Island could have as little as 15 minutes warning of a tsumami, Victoria would have at least 90 minutes. - “If you feel the earth shaking,” he said, “get away (from the coast) and stay away,” Receding water is another sign of a coming tsunami. Despite the risk of a megathrust earthquake and a tsunami, Bird points out the hazard in British Columbia is more from normal, smaller earth- quakes. “They're a lot more frequent, and they can still be damaging,” she said. TSUNAMIS HAVE A HISTORY ON WEST COAST The coasts of British Columbia and Vancouver Island are no strangers to tsunamis. Like the areca where the quake struck off of Indonesia, B.C, lies along the Ring of Fire, a region known for gencrating the majority of the world’s most powerful carthquakes. The last great waves to strike the province were a result of a 9.2 magnitude carthquake off the coast of Alaska on March 27, 1964. The so-called Good Friday tsunamis raced down B.C.’s coast and hammered Prince Rupert, Tofino, Hot Springs Cove, Zcballos and Port Alberni. Port Alberni was devastated duc to its location at the end of the Alberni Inlet. The inlet focused the wave’s energy and inercascd its destructive potential. Fifty- five homes were destroyed, dragged off thcir foundations and pullcd out to sca, and many hundreds were damaged. According to witnesses, cars and boats were tossed around like children’s toys by an cight-foot wave travelling at over 385 kilometres per hour. No one was killed in Canada, although there was millions of dollars in property damage. More than 100 Alaskans perished. The lack of deaths in Port Alberni was mostly duc to luck, as tidal flooding preceded the big wave. Many residents took the flooding as a sign of an impending tsunami and fled before the main wave arrived. A provincial government report later stated the province had learned a cheap lesson in the necd for disaster planning, civil preparedness and warn- ing systems along its coast. - Patrick Szpak, The Martlct (CUP)