Town Tools builds free, public tools for Tofino and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.
From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/tofino-british-columbia-ca/recent-earthquakes
The coast here moves — most weeks a few small earthquakes are recorded off Vancouver Island that nobody feels. This page shows what the ground has actually been doing lately, from Canada's national seismograph network. For what to do when a big one hits, the Tsunami: Where to Go page is the one to know by heart.
Strongest in this window
M3.4
209 km west of Tofino · Not reported ·
13 earthquakes of magnitude M2.5 or larger within 300 km of town in the last 30 days.
Recent earthquakes
Magnitude
Where
Depth
Shaking
When
M2.6
228 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M2.8
227 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M2.5
221 km north
5 km deep
Not reported
M3.1
206 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M2.8
210 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M3.4
209 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M2.6
208 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M3.2
209 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M3.1
208 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M2.8
201 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M2.9
207 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
M2.9
204 km west
10 km deep
Not reported
Long or strong? Get gone.
A big Cascadia earthquake could put tsunami waves on Tofino's shores within 15 to 30 minutes — faster than any official warning can reliably reach everyone. The shaking itself is the warning. While the ground is moving: Drop, Cover and Hold On. Then, if the shaking was long or violent, or the ocean pulls back strangely, head for high ground on foot right away — don't wait for sirens, alerts or this page. The District's tsunami evacuation map shows the routes; the Voyent Alert! app carries the official notifications.
This page is not an earthquake warning
Every quake here was recorded after it happened — no one can predict earthquakes, and this page cannot warn you of one. What it can do is show what the ground has been doing lately. If you feel a long or violent quake near the coast, act on the advice above without waiting for any alert.
Tofino sits beside the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the undersea fault where the ocean floor slides beneath North America, running from mid Vancouver Island to northern California. It last fully ruptured on 26 January 1700, in one of the world's largest recorded earthquakes — the fault broke along roughly 1,000 km and the tsunami it raised swept the outer coast, destroying the Pachena Bay winter village south of here, and crossed the Pacific to Japan, whose written records let scientists date the event to the day.
The strongest onshore earthquake in Canada's recorded history also happened on this island: a magnitude 7.3 quake under the Forbidden Plateau area near Courtenay on 23 June 1946, which knocked down three-quarters of the chimneys in nearby communities and was felt across Vancouver Island.
Most of what this page lists is far smaller: quakes off the west coast on the faults that surround the subduction zone. As a rule of thumb from Earthquakes Canada, anything under about magnitude 3.5 is recorded on seismographs but generally not felt, and quakes between 3.5 and 5.4 are often felt but rarely cause damage. A quiet month here is normal — and so is a busy one.
Checked October 12 at 4:50 a.m.. Earthquake data from Earthquakes Canada (Natural Resources Canada / Earthquakes Canada, Open Government Licence – Canada). Magnitude, depth and felt intensity are revised as analysis improves, and very fresh quakes can take minutes to appear.