Earthquake Hazards on Canada's Pacific Coast

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The single largest region of elevated earthquake hazard in Canada comprises Haida Gwaii, Vancouver Island and the adjacent lower mainland in British Columbia. A population of ~3 million people resides in this region, including communities of 10 First Nations distributed along the coast. The goal of this proposal is to partner academic earthquake researchers with their counterparts at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to enable an ambitious 5-year program that exploits our collective expertise, resources and infrastructure to yield fundamental understanding of this earthquake hazard. Realization of this goal is made possible through the National Facility for Seismic Imaging, a $15 M initiative recently funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, that hosts 120 state-of-the-art broadband, ocean-bottom seismometers. Using funds from this proposal to support shiptime costs, drop fees and consumables, we will deploy these instruments at 5 targeted and poorly understood segments of the complex plate-tectonic fault system offshore western Canada over a 5-year period. Each fault segment possesses distinct seismic properties and is capable of producing (or has produced) magnitude Mw 7-8+ earthquakes. The research enabled by this academic-NRCan partnership will lead to new scientific insights into the ways plate tectonic forces shape the deformation and evolution of faults offshore BC and accurate assessments of seismic, tsunami and submarine landslide hazards in Canadian Pacific territorial waters. This information will be incorporated in future National Seismic Hazard Models by NRCan through its Public Safety Geoscience program. The National Seismic Hazard Model underpins the National Research Council's National Building Code which communicates seismic risk and resistance design requirements to multiple stakeholders (e.g., emergency management planners, provincial regulators, municipal building inspectors, engineers, contractors, architects, community groups) for the benefit of all Canadians, including those living on the west coast.