Earthquake Insurance Coverage For B.C.

I just got a notification from one of the major insurers that BlueCircle represents, offering enhanced earthquake coverage, which made me think...how often does an earthquake happen in B.C. that would make you consider getting insurance for such an event?

The answer may surprise you, as it did me! It seems that almost daily there are earthquakes that happen in and around British Columbia! Small in magnitude, and deep enough to not have a noticeable effect perhaps, but regular enough to consider that maybe, just maybe, one day the big one will hit, as it did in Indonesia just recently.

The image above is a screen shot from a website that popped up when researching earthquakes in British Columbia. Earthquake Track does just that, tracking earthquakes around the world. Consider the following facts about earthquake occurrences and how they affect us surface dwellers.

There are approx 900,000 earthquakes each year that we don't or can't actually feel but are recorded on a siesmograph. 

About 30,000 earthquakes are felt each year but do little or no damage.

When earthquakes get into the 5.5 magnitude range, the effects become noticeable and damage starts to occur to man-made structures.

Magnitude 6.1 and above earthquakes cause a lot of damage, including tsunami, when conditions and location are conducive. 

There have been 5 major earthquakes in the past 2 days, with 2 being  6.23 and 6.9 in Praya, Indonesia, which made the news here in North America. However, there was 1 in Lebabsa Fiji that hit 6.8, and 2 in Levuka, Fiji, one hitting 6.3 and one a whopping magnitude of 8.2!Just yesterday, there were 10 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 that hit Bali in a 24 hour span.

So, earthquake insurance coverage indeed!