[ad_1]
According to the United States Geological Survey, three earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.5 to 6.8 struck the Canadian province of British Columbia in less than an hour at 22:39 local time.
The earthquakes were followed by a number of smaller tremors on the west coast of Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Seven others strike near Vancouver Island and measure between 4.3 and 5.2.
Another earthquake of magnitude 4.3 rocked Chiapas, Mexico, while a 4.4-magnitude earthquake shook the Gulf of California.
Are there any fears about the change of tectonic plates?
Canada is sitting on one of the 30 tectonic plates that cover the continents and oceans of the Earth.
The plates, which each have a thickness of several tens of kilometers, move in different directions due to the currents of molten material beneath the earth's crust.
When the plates collide, earthquakes and volcanic activity occur.
Canada's west coast is located in one of the most active collision zones in the world, as the plate from North America is larger than the Pacific plate.
British Columbia is also located in the North American part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
This means that the area is threatened by earthquakes.
The Ring is a large area located in the Pacific Ocean Basin and would be the site of 90% of earthquakes in the world.
As a result, the buzzer is constantly active and tremors occur every day.
More than 1000 earthquakes occur each year in the world and most of them occur in areas located on the Ring.
Ben van der Pluijm, a geologist at the University of Michigan, told Express.co.uk, "Every year we have about 1,500 earthquakes of magnitude 5 to 5.9 worldwide.
"Until now, we are at about 11 o'clock for 2018."
Another strong earthquake hit the belt of fire today near the Japanese town of Fukushima.
The magnitude 5.0 quake hit 29 miles below the surface at 10:47 UTC (11:47 GMT).
This happened just off the coast of Japan, about 21 miles from the sea.
