Newly discovered fault line running underneath the Saanich Peninsula could be catastrophic for southern Vancouver Island
CTV
To the untrained eye, it’s nothing more than a tiny bump in the trail that surrounds Elk Lake. For Theron Finley, a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria in the earthquake geology department, it’s much more.
To the untrained eye, it’s nothing more than a tiny bump in the trail that surrounds Elk Lake. For Theron Finley, a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria in the earthquake geology department, it’s much more.
“The side that we’re on was pushed up overtop of that side,” said Finley.
It runs beneath Elk Lake, over Cordova Ridge and into Cordova Bay.
“The fault line actually runs right along the edge of this slope,” said Finley as he pointed to the lump in the trail.
It’s a newly discovered crustal fault line with the potential of causing a massive amount of damage.
“We know that the damage and the shaking would be quite severe, especially close to the fault,” said Nick Harrichhausen, researcher with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France.
A quake here could topple buildings and cause billions of dollars in damage.
