While mountaineering is statistically safer than everyday activities like taking a bath or eating a meal, avalanches remain the deadliest natural hazard in Canada, according to a Department of Public Safety report. Blacklock's Reporter says between 2011 and 2022, avalanches claimed 77 lives, averaging seven fatalities annually, mostly in BC."Avalanches are the deadliest natural hazard in Canada, killing more people annually than all other natural hazards combined," the report emphasized.In contrast, coroners' data show the number of Canadians who die from choking while eating (158), snowmobile accidents (73), and bathtub drownings (48) each year.Although avalanche deaths are a minor occurrence, they highlight the importance of safety measures like mountain weather forecasts and safety workshops, managed by Avalanche Canada, a federally subsidized non-profit agency. Volcano-related deaths are rare but not unprecedented. Canada has 13 volcanoes, all dormant.“People aren’t aware of the volcano hazard because nothing has happened in recent history,” volcanologist Dr. Melanie Kelman of the Geological Survey of Canada said in an earlier interview.Canada's dormant volcanoes, like British Columbia's Mt. Garibaldi, pose a hidden threat, with oral histories revealing devastating prehistoric eruptions.British Columbia’s Mt. Garibaldi last erupted 8,000 years ago. Canada’s last volcanic eruption occurred circa 1775 in B.C.’s Nass River Valley. Oral histories of the Nisga’a people indicate two villages were decimated, killing 2,000 people. Federal research traced other violent prehistoric eruptions using evidence of ash deposits.Canada also has active quake zones in British Columbia and Québec’s St. Lawrence River Valley. The last disastrous quake in Canada in 1929 triggered a tsunami that drowned 28 people in Newfoundland and Labrador.Lesser quakes included a 1946 event on Vancouver Island that claimed two lives by drowning and heart attack. A 1925 quake at L’île aux Lièvres, Que. was blamed for six fatal heart attacks.
While mountaineering is statistically safer than everyday activities like taking a bath or eating a meal, avalanches remain the deadliest natural hazard in Canada, according to a Department of Public Safety report. Blacklock's Reporter says between 2011 and 2022, avalanches claimed 77 lives, averaging seven fatalities annually, mostly in BC."Avalanches are the deadliest natural hazard in Canada, killing more people annually than all other natural hazards combined," the report emphasized.In contrast, coroners' data show the number of Canadians who die from choking while eating (158), snowmobile accidents (73), and bathtub drownings (48) each year.Although avalanche deaths are a minor occurrence, they highlight the importance of safety measures like mountain weather forecasts and safety workshops, managed by Avalanche Canada, a federally subsidized non-profit agency. Volcano-related deaths are rare but not unprecedented. Canada has 13 volcanoes, all dormant.“People aren’t aware of the volcano hazard because nothing has happened in recent history,” volcanologist Dr. Melanie Kelman of the Geological Survey of Canada said in an earlier interview.Canada's dormant volcanoes, like British Columbia's Mt. Garibaldi, pose a hidden threat, with oral histories revealing devastating prehistoric eruptions.British Columbia’s Mt. Garibaldi last erupted 8,000 years ago. Canada’s last volcanic eruption occurred circa 1775 in B.C.’s Nass River Valley. Oral histories of the Nisga’a people indicate two villages were decimated, killing 2,000 people. Federal research traced other violent prehistoric eruptions using evidence of ash deposits.Canada also has active quake zones in British Columbia and Québec’s St. Lawrence River Valley. The last disastrous quake in Canada in 1929 triggered a tsunami that drowned 28 people in Newfoundland and Labrador.Lesser quakes included a 1946 event on Vancouver Island that claimed two lives by drowning and heart attack. A 1925 quake at L’île aux Lièvres, Que. was blamed for six fatal heart attacks.
