It was a quiet Friday afternoon in the Pique office when a great, disorienting grinding broke the peace.
It sounded something like the downstairs garage door rolling shut, only louder, heavier, more sustained.
But then, why are the windows rattling on the building next door?
It didn’t last long—five or six seconds of low rumbling—before it was over.
Walking outside shortly afterwards, people all up and down Function Junction were standing around looking confused, talking to each other, discussing the rare occurrence.
At that moment, a government emergency alert sent by text (though apparently not to everyone) confirmed it: a magnitude 4.7 earthquake, about 24 kilometres from Sechelt.
Communities up and down the Sea to Sky felt the quake, with hundreds taking to social media to share their experience.
And if you’ve never experienced an earthquake, it’s hard to convey how strange a sensation it truly is. Even from as far away from the epicentre as Whistler.
“It really felt like a big truck had just slammed into the building, and you could hear a boom and feel it shake,” Whistler resident Natalie Rock told Glacier Media.
Mika McKinnon, meanwhile, a field geophysicist and disaster researcher, described it as “a lot like being on the ocean.”
Though people felt the quake in the Lower Mainland, up the Sea to Sky and even out to the Fraser Valley, no significant injuries or structural damage was reported, according to officials.
It’s not unheard of. According to the National Building Code of Canada, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) is located within Seismic Zone four, “meaning Whistler is considered at high-risk from earthquake damage,” the RMOW says on its website.
“Fortunately, the majority of the structures in Whistler are wood-frame and reinforced concrete, which are considered reasonably stable buildings in an earthquake due to the flexibility of these materials.”
The Lower Mainland of B.C. experiences a “felt earthquake” about once every 10 years, said Sheri Molnar, an associate professor at Western University in London, Ont., who studies seismic activity in Metro Vancouver, in an interview with the CBC.
Molnar used a 4.7-magnitude earthquake near Sidney on Dec. 29, 2015, and a 6.8-magnitude Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001, as examples.
“You should always be ready for an earthquake. We’re not ready for a very strong earthquake and we’re not ready for an earthquake that would cause damage ... but it can happen,” Molnar said.
According to the federal government, there have been 22 earthquakes in Canada so far in 2025, nine of them in B.C. Of those, the 4.7-quake near Sechelt on Feb. 21 is tied for the largest with an earthquake near Grand Cache, Alta., on Feb. 20.
But every quake on the list is small potatoes compared to the fabled “Big One”—the megathrust earthquake researchers predict will one day tear apart the Pacific Northwest.
There’s no way to predict exactly when The Big One will hit—it’s possible it doesn’t happen in any of our lifetimes—but most agree the damage will be catastrophic when it does.
“The quake could cause enormous damage along the coast, with a potential death toll in the thousands. Locally, whole sections of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Vancouver would be flattened,” wrote Gordon Williams for the American Red Cross, in a Jan. 10 blog post.
“The quake could trigger a tsunami strong enough to send a wall of water racing down Puget Sound. Rescue forces trying to reach the scene would be blocked by fallen bridges and blocked highways.”
While governments and municipalities should be focusing on building resilience into their infrastructure, there are small measures everyone can take to ensure the best outcome in the event of catastrophe.
The Red Cross recommends keeping emergency supplies of food and water handy in case a quake leaves you isolated and cut off from supplies; having lots of flashlights and a battery powered radio, plus lots of extra batteries; keeping extra doses of your most-needed medications; moving heavy objects to lower shelves and using heavy-duty latches to keep closet doors from opening suddenly in a quake; and removing any heavy objects that hang over beds.
In Whistler, the most important thing (in the event of any emergency) is to sign up for Whistler Alert at whistler.ca/whistleralert. Residents are also advised to develop a household emergency plan, prepare a grab-and-go emergency kit, prepare their homes for earthquakes, and know what to do if one hits: drop, cover, and hold on.
Find more info at whistler.ca/earthquake.
