Significant Earthquakes Along The Fault
Four large earthquakes have occurred along the Queen Charlotte Fault within the last hundred years: a magnitude 7 event in 1929, a magnitude 8.1 occurred in 1949 (Canada's largest recorded earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake) a magnitude 7.4 in 1970 and a magnitude 7.7 on Oct 27 2012
The P nodal focal mechanism for the 1949 earthquake indicates a virtually pure strike-slip movement with a northwest striking nodal plane corresponding to the strike of the fault. The 1970 earthquake did however show a similar strike-slip movement with a small but significant thrust component, consistent with relative plate motion. The 1949 earthquake was larger than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, causing nearly a 500 kilometer long segment of the Queen Charlotte Fault to break.
A pair of 6.5 magnitude quakes occurred on January 5, 2008 near the southern triple junction, although they do not appear to have occurred directly on the Queen Charlotte Fault.
A 7.7 magnitude quake struck off the western coast of Haida Gwaii at around 8:10pm Pacific Time on Saturday 27 October 2012. This was the biggest quake in Canadian territory since 1949. Aftershocks as large as 6.3 have been reported. A 45-cm tsunami was reported locally. Alerts were sent across the Pacific Basin. This earthquake did not have any major impacts, except for the cessation of the hotsprings on Hotspring Island. This quake was remarkable for having been a thrust, and not a strike-slip tremor, more like the mechanism of the Cascadia Subduction Zone to the south.
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