Quake Update

Back on September 20 of last year, I posted a note here predicting a major earthquake in California within the next few weeks. 

I refuse to rescind my prediction, because, paradoxically, the more wrong my statement appears to be, the closer it comes to being right. I am, however, beginning to reexamine my definition of few. 

Since I made my prediction, there have been tremors all over the place, including a few in some really unlikely spots, but so far, nothing that would qualify as a major quake in California.  The latest quake to come anywhere close was in the Pacific, just off the coast of Vancouver Island.

 

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake has been recorded about 105 miles west of Ucluelet off the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

A National Earthquake Information Center geophysicist in Golden, Colo., says there is no danger of a tsunami from the shallow quake. It hit at 12:05 p.m. Saturday.

Geophysicist Rafael Abreu says he doesn't expect to see damage with this quake based on its distance from shore and the low intensity at which it was felt.

A handful of residents in Lopez Island, Wash., as well as Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, reported feeling it.

And this morning – actually last night local time – on the other side of the seismological Ring of Fire, a deadly quake hit the Philippines:

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Monday off the third-largest island in the Philippines, killing at least 12 people.

The quake struck about 11:49 a.m. (10:49 p.m. Sunday ET) about 70 kilometers (44 miles) from the coastal city of Dumaguete on the Philippine island of Negros.

The dead included two elementary school children, authorities said, according to the Philippines News Agency. The girls died when walls at their schools collapsed on them.

The Office of Civil Defense put the official death toll at 12,  although there were unconfirmed reports of more deaths.