By Greg Fry

Small quake south of Kamloops Wednesday

Nov 1, 2017 | 12:50 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s doubtful you felt it, but there was an earthquake 59 kilometres south of Kamloops this morning.

Alison Bird, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, says the 2.2 magnitude quake hit at 8:39 a.m. local time.

“It was a fairly small event and it was quite shallow. It’s not that significant. It doesn’t look like anyone there felt it and it certainly wouldn’t have caused any damage.”

And while earthquakes are known to threaten places like the West Coast, she says small quakes like this morning’s aren’t that uncommon in this region.

“We’ve had earthquakes in this area before, that southern Kamloops area, Kelowna region. They happen every few months though we haven’t seen any that big.”

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She adds 2.2 magnitude quakes aren’t anywhere near strong enough to be considered dangerous.

“When you get up to 5-6 we consider that moderate. Six and above is strong, seven and above is major and eight and above is great, what you would call massive,” says Bird. “You wouldn’t get anything that large. You’d get up to about a five magnitude quake in your region but that would be quite unusual and it wouldn’t cause extensive structural damage but it could cause things to fall off shelves.”

And although earthquakes never reach a signficiant size in the Kamloops area, she says it never hurts to know what to do should the ‘Big One’ hit.

“You know, B.C. is seismically active and while you live in Kamloops you probably travel a bit so it’s still good to know what to do in an earthquake. So, practice your drop, cover and hold on. Practice getting under something.”