It’s not very often that one sees scientists come out of the woodwork and predict future events with time frames like “next week”, especially for massive earthquakes (up to magnitude 9) in populated areas. But scientists in British Columbia just warned the emergency centers there of a strong potential (in earthquake terms) for a huge quake off of Vancouver Island.

Obviously, anything that would kill anyone is bad, and a quake of the expected magnitude is Really Bad. Adding to that, I haven’t yet seen Vancouver yet and it’s on my short list of places to visit. But the detached, Pennsylvania-doesn’t-rumble observer in me is really curious to see if the science has gotten that good.