Earthquake fault plane solutions near Vancouver Island

P nodal solutions for six earthquakes in the Vancouver Island region are consistent with a north–south orientation for the principal compressive stress. The predominant type of faulting is strike slip, either dextral slip on northwest striking faults or sinistral slip on northeast striking faults. The few aftershock sequences that can be documented for shallow earthquakes greater than magnitude 5 all contain very few aftershocks, which are small in size. This may indicate that higher than average stress drop is characteristic of large earthquakes in the Vancouver Island region.