A powerful earthquake struck this morning off the Vancouver Island. The tremor measured 5.8 degrees on the Richter scale and, fortunately, wasn’t powerful enough to generate a tsunami. The first measurements indicated that the earth quake was of a 6.1 magnitude, but the US Geological Survey corrected them and downgraded it to 5.8.

The tremor struck at 5:37 a.m. local time (1237 GMT) at about 153 kilometers (95 miles) west-southwest of Port Hardy and 472 kilometers (293 miles) from Vancouver, authorities said.

According to a report from the Natural Resources Canada, the quake was actually the strongest in a series of tremors which started to strike the region Monday.

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

A second 3.9-magnitude quake struck the same area at 6:14 a.m., a third 4.2 tremor at 12:28 a.m., a magnitude 4 quake at 12:59 a.m. and a 4.8 one at 2:20 a.m. Since Monday, when the seismic activity has started in the area, there have been 15 earthquakes and aftershocks, the Geological Survey said.

However, "it's nothing to be worried about," as quake specialist Garry Rogers said. He said the series of tremors reminded residents of the region that they were living in a very active offshore activity area.

"[The province] experiences an earthquake every day, but only a small number of these quakes are noticeable and even fewer result in damage," a British Columbia government Web site on seismic activity said.

There were no reports of damages or casualties.

However, many earthquake scientists said they expected a major earthquake to strike off Canada's Pacific Coast, a quake that could trigger a much-feared tsunami.