6.1 Earthquake Off the West Coast of Vancouver Island at 5:37 AM This Morning

A powerful 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck at sea Thursday off the Pacific coast, west of Vancouver Island, but was too small to generate a tsunami, Canadian and US officials reported.

The US Geological Survey said the quake occurred at 5:37am local time (1237 GMT) some 153 kilometers (95 miles) west-southwest of Port Hardy on the northern tip of the island, and 472 kilometers (293 miles) from Vancouver.

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Natural Resources Canada said it was the largest of "a series of earthquakes occurring in the seismically active region" beginning late Monday.

"These earthquakes are too far offshore to be felt on land and too small to generate a tsunami," the government agency said.

Glen Plummer, spokesman for Emergency Management British Columbia, the province's emergency preparedness agency, said Thursday's pre-dawn earthquake was "nothing to be alarmed about," as it was "not an unusual event".

No reports of casualties or damage had come in to the agency, Plummer said.

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Experts say Canada's Pacific Coast is overdue for a major earthquake, but a British Columbia government website on seismic activity points out that the province "experiences an earthquake every day, but only a small number of these quakes are noticeable and even fewer result in damage".

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Thursday's quake was the latest of about two dozen temblors of magnitude 4 or above to strike in the area in the past 48 hours, according to the USGS. A 5.2-magnitude quake was the largest of those, striking the same area Wednesday.

"We're having a series in that area," Julie Martinez, a USGS geophysicist said. She said the number of earthquakes was not unusual.

"These earthquakes are too far offshore to be felt on land and too small to generate a tsunami," Natural Resources Canada said on its earthquakes Web site.

Vancouver Island sits off Canada's west coast. Its main city of Victoria sits at its southern end.