update ~ Crrrack

(Click on photo to enlarge and see the crack)

A follow up from yesterday's earthquakes here on Haida Gwaii. As I mentioned in yesterday's post I was lying in bed when there was a loud crack and then the earth moved like we were on a boat...40 seconds later and 2 immediate aftershocks we started to investigate the source of the crack. This is a 40' x 60' two story log home so it would not be unusual to hear wood cracking however we got more than we bargained for and a whole bunch of luck!

There are two spruce headers, which when we put them in 10 years ago to add two new rooms fit a little snugly. We figured the wood would shrink as it dried out. It did and as you can see a beautiful custom stain glass window measuring 12' x 5' was made to fit the space. Because the force of this earthquake was undulating the header above recieved pressure from both sides and cracked. Fortunately it is not a structural support and the stain glass did not break.
Since the first quake yesterday morning there have been more than 100 aftershocks and still counting.

Haida Gwaii is located along the Queen Charlotte Fault which is Canada's equivalent of the San Andreas Fault in California. The largest earthquake in Canada in recent history occured on these islands in 1949 which registered 8.1 on the Ritcher scale which is 1000 times stronger than what occured yesterday!
More My World Tuesday

My World Tuesday ~ Shake, Rattle and Roll

This map is from the Canadian Earthquake Centre and shows the earthquake epicentre of this morning at Rose Harbour, an old whaling station at the very south end of the islands.

At 7:30 a.m. PST this morning I am lying in bed listening to the news when the dog barks and a deep rumbling sound moves through the house. It is still dark out, a mobile hanging in my window starts to sway and hit the window and then there is a large crack and my bed starts to move back and forth. It continued for about 40 seconds and got stronger in intensity, to the point of me feeling nauses!

This map off the US Earthquake site shows a more general map but includes the fault lines we sit on!

This was the first of two earthquake this morning. The first one registered 6.6 on the Ritcher Scale and seven minutes later there was an after shock of 5.7. Rather than me trying to explain
the Ritcher Scale you can read about it here on Wikipedia.

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