The interplate earthquake began in the ocean bottom just off the rugged coast of Graham Island. The 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands earthquake was caused by a rupture on the Queen Charlotte Fault, which forms part of the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. The same dataset expressed in terms of area yields a 65.8-fold increase in landslide area, from 0.07 km2/year to 4.6 km2/year. J Geophys Res Earth Surf 122:1991–2015. Prov BC Land Manag Rep 27. https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/Docs/Mr/Lmr027.htm, Province of British Columbia (2018) Haida Gwaii air photos, 1:20:000: BCC07069 (1-158); BCC07070 (1-108); BCC07071 (1-215). Barth, S., Geertsema, M., Bevington, A.R. In contrast up to 20%, 17%, and 12% of landslides in 2012–2013 occurred on northwest-, north-, and southeast-facing slopes (Fig. The most common soil types are podzols, regosols, and organic soils (Soil Classification Working Group 1998; Banner et al. 1986; Geertsema and Pojar 2007; Schuster and Highland 2007; Geertsema et al. 2016). Write something about yourself. 89:55–69. 2012; Millard et al. Bevington et al. Three Environment Canada weather stations are near the study area (Fig. Small and moderate earthquakes around Haida Gwaii were not well recorded before a local seismic network was established in the mid-1980s. 1 and 4c. 2014). In Prince Rupert, windows were shattered and buildings swayed. In: Sassa K, Canuti P (eds) Landslides – Disaster Risk Reduction. Proc GeoVancouver, Vancouver, Bostwick TK (1984) A Re-examination of the August 22, 1949 Queen Charlotte Earthquake. 2006). Prov BC, Land Manag Rep 76. https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/Docs/Mr/Lmr076.htm, Rood KM (1984) An Aerial Photograph Inventory of the Frequency and Yield of Mass Wasting on the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Geomorphology 11:215–226, Tschaplinski PJ, Hogan D, Hartman GF (2004) Fish-forestry interaction research in coastal British Columbia: The Carnation Creek and Queen Charlotte Islands studies. It extends from the Explorer Triple Junction north of Vancouver Island to the eastern end of the Chugach-St. Elias mountain range, a distance of 1,200 km (Figure 1). https://doi.org/10.4141/cjss10032, Geertsema M, Pojar JJ (2007) Influence of landslides on biophysical diversity – a perspective from British Columbia. (2017) summarized the modelled, mean annual precipitation of Haida Gwaii (Wang et al. On 4 November 2012, a storm with southwest winds up to 120 km/h was recorded at Cape St. James. 2007). We mapped 244 landslides between September 2012 (pre-earthquake) and May 2013 (post-earthquake). 2014). 6). Earthquake. The Juan de Fuca Plate is a completely different geological structure that separates the Queen Charlotte Fault from the San Andreas Fault. The offshore region of British Columbia is one of the highly active seismic regions of the world. Canada's largest historical earthquake- a magnitude 8.1, occurred along this fault on August 22, 1949. https://doi.org/10.2307/3236856, Wang H, Sassa K (2006) Analysis of seismically triggered landslides in the 2004 Chuetsu event of Niigata prefecture, Japan. 2010; Gorum et al. Prominent examples of such a faults are the Fairweather fault, which is the continuation of the Queen Charlotte Islands fault and serves as the North America–Pacific plate boundary along the west coast of Canada and southeast Alaska (Figs. Landslides 11:441–461. Current observations of seismic activity and uplift of the coastal regions suggests that another super giant earthquake may be in the making. As explained before, Queen Charlotte's fault is located between the Alaska subduction zone, which is illustrated by the dark contour on the northest of the continent, and the Cascadia subduction zone, which starts near Vancouver island. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 51:6–29. Fresh debris slides south of Gowaia Bay, photographed on 12 November 2012, 16 days after the earthquake. Springer Intern Publ 291–302. Here, the Pacific plate and the North America plate are moving along each other. After this spike, the rates and numbers of landslides decreased. Landslides with several distinct headscarps and slide paths that coalesced were counted as multiple landslides. 5 show landslide numbers and total area in relation to the year in which the landslides first appeared. Shaking was felt throughout British Columbia, parts of Washington, Oregon, Alberta, the Yukon, and Alaska. Although snow on Haida Gwaii tends to accumulate only at high elevations, above where most landslides occur, it is possible that some landslides were hidden by snow. The imagery we used to determine average annual landslide rates and distribution in the study area over a period of almost 11 years is limited by several factors, including cloud cover, snow, shadows, and image resolution. The tick marks (triangular) point in the direction of the dip of the fault. In: Slaymaker O (ed), Landscapes and Landforms of Western Canada. Earth Planet Sci Lett 275:221–232, Millard T, Geertsema M, Clague J, Bobrowsky P, Sakals M (2012) Landslides on Haida Gwaii during and after the earthquake. Oblique view of Haida Gwaii landslides just south of Gowaia Bay (see Fig. In: Lousier, JD, Still, GW (eds), Degradation of Forest Land: Forest Soils at Risk. Bull Seismol Soc Am 69:445–450, Meunier P, Hovius N, Haines JA (2008) Topographic site effects and the location of earthquake induced landslides. The number of landslides increased 12.9 times and the area of landslides increased 65.8 times immediately after the earthquake. (2015) and show that Moresby Island moved as much as 1.15 m to the southeast and subsided by as much as 0.3 m during the earthquake. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2006.02.010, Lin G-W, Chen H, Hovius N, Horng M-J, Dadson S, Meunier P, Lines M (2008) Effects of earthquake and cyclone sequencing on landsliding and fluvial sediment transfer in a mountain catchment. Although nobody was killed in this earthquake, people and animals were knocked off their feet and there were landslides and other damage. Prov BC Land Manag Handb 41. https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/Lmh/LMH41-1.pdf, Septer D, Schwab JW (1995) Rainstorm and flood damage, Northwest British Columbia 1891-1991. https://api.planet.com, Poulin VA (1984) A Research Approach to Solving Fish/Forestry Interaction in Relation to Mass Wasting on the Queen Charlotte Islands.