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Ocean Networks Canada sensors detect earthquake in central Mexico

Overview

NEWS RELEASE Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) underwater earthquake sensors off the west coast of Vancouver Island detected in real-time the magnitude 7.1 earthquake in central Mexico today. ![09-2017-EEW-dashboard.jpg](https://cdn.onc-prod.intergalactic.space/09_2017_EEW_dashboard_0e2a587152.jpg) The sensors—located at Barkley Canyon, Cascadia Basin and Endeavour on and near the Cascadia subduction zone—recorded seismic activity from more than 4,000 kilometres away. > “Today’s earthquake in central Mexico is yet another reminder and opportunity for British Columbia to ramp up efforts to complete our earthquake early warning system before the ‘Big One’ hits,” says ONC Innovation Centre Business Analyst Teron Moore. Earlier this month, [ONC sensors also picked up the magnitude 8.1 earthquake](https://www.oceannetworks.ca/news-and-stories/stories/earthquakes-shed-light-on-british-columbias-early-warning-system/) that struck off Mexico’s southwest coast near the Guatemalan border. In February 2016, the Government of British Columbia [invested $5 million](https://www.oceannetworks.ca/news-and-stories/stories/ocean-networks-canada-to-coordinate-earthquake-early-warning-system-for-bc/) for ONC to develop and install an earthquake early warning system. British Columbia’s earthquake early warning system is currently in development and will be installed, tested and delivered to Emergency Management BC by March 2019. Once completed, the system will be capable of providing British Columbians with advance warning of a large mega-thrust earthquake occurring at the Cascadia subduction zone. Unlike Mexico’s land-based sensors, British Columbia’s earthquake early warning system has the advantage of underwater sensors deployed on or near the Cascadia subduction zone. The closer a sensor is to an earthquake’s epicentre, the more advance warning can be provided. ONC is an initiative of the University of Victoria. # More Information: [Ocean Networks Canada Earthquake Data Dashboard webpage](https://www.oceannetworks.ca/data/data-dashboards/earthquake-data-dashboard/) [Ocean Networks Canada Earthquake Early Warning webpage](https://www.oceannetworks.ca/services/earthquake-early-warning/) ## Media Contact: onc-comms@uvic.ca

Earthquake risk minimal when storing carbon under the deep ocean, study finds

Overview

NEWS RELEASE Injecting carbon dioxide (CO₂) into ocean basalt has almost no risk of triggering any seismic activity such as earthquakes or fault slip according to new research from [Solid Carbon](https://solidcarbon.ca/), a promising climate change mitigation project for reducing the amount of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere. Advanced computer modelling by scientists with the Solid Carbon team shows injecting CO₂ under the Cascadia Basin has less than 1 percent chance of causing fault slip. Solid Carbon, an international research team led by Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a University of Victoria (UVic) initiative, and funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, is investigating how to permanently and safely store CO₂ below the ocean floor. The goal is to capture CO₂ from the atmosphere and inject it into young (less than 15 million years old) porous basalt rock, such as that found in the Cascadia Basin off the west coast of Canada, where it would interact with minerals, transforming into carbonate rock.

Endeavour site records the highest level of earthquake activity in 20 years

Overview

A peak of more than 200 earthquakes per hour were detected this week at a deep sea site within Ocean Network Canada’s northeast Pacific seafloor observatory, the highest rate of earthquakes observed in this region [since 2005](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JB025662). On March 6, 2024, ONC’s real time monitoring network detected significant tectonic activity including an approximately 4.1 magnitude earthquake at the North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments (NEPTUNE) observatory’s Endeavour site, at a depth of approximately 5 kilometres and 240 kilometres offshore of Vancouver Island. Increased earthquake rates have been observed at the site since 2018, with the March 6 peak swarm following several days of increased small earthquake frequency.