Tintina Fault May Still Be Active, Could Deliver Massive Earthquake in Canada

The San Andres fault may get a lot of name recognition due to how active it's been, but there are other faults around the world capable of producing damaging earthquakes. One of them lies in Canada's Yukon Territory.

According to scientists, the Tintina fault has been showing an increase in earthquake activity, making experts reconsider everything they thought they knew about the fault line.

Once thought to be dormant, experts say that the fault line may still be active. Even more surprising, they claim it could be capable of producing a massive earthquake in the area nearby, which could disrupt the infrastructure located in the region.

Here's what scientists say they've uncovered about the Tintina fault.

In July 2025, the University of Victoria published research showing the seismic hazards of a major fault line across the Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada.

According to findings posted in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers discovered that the fault line that they once thought was dormant has been producing a number of large earthquakes over the past 2.6 million years.

"Over the past couple of decades, there have been a few small earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4 detected along the Tintina fault, but nothing to suggest it is capable of large ruptures," Theron Finley, one of the lead authors of the study, wrote.

The change in their understanding of the fault's activity was born from updates to technologies that allowed them to collect better data from the area.

Previously, they were relying on just a few hundred years' worth of data, which they'd collected from oral, written, and modern technological accounts. Since thousands of years can pass between major eruptions, this just wasn't enough information.

But, using high-resolution tools, they were able to look much further back, which changed their understanding of the fault line's activity levels.

Based on the data they reviewed, they believe that there is proof that the fault has slipped by several meters over the past couple of thousand years, with no significant movement in the past 12,000 years.

However, they believe the fault line is undergoing a strain of .2 to .8 millimeters each year, which is a sign that a future earthquake could be coming.

The scientists used the data to put together their prediction for the fault's future.

"We determined that future earthquakes on the Tintina fault could exceed magnitude 7.5," Finley wrote. "Based on the data, we think that the fault may be at a relatively late stage of a seismic cycle, having accrued a slip deficit, or build-up of strain, of six meters in the last 12,000 years. If this were to be released, it would cause a significant earthquake."

If that were to happen, it sounds like nearby Dawson City may face the biggest risk, according to SciTechDaily, especially when it comes to the region's mining areas and infrastructure.

Additionally, landslides are a major threat to the area, and a 7.5 or greater quake could trigger the Sunnydale or Moosehide landslides, both of which the publication says are already showing signs of instability.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the people of Dawson City need to start panicking. As the experts have pointed out, fault lines can go thousands of years without eruptions.

Hopefully, emergency response personnel and those tasked with assessing risks within the area will instead take this new information into consideration and readjust their belief that the Tintina fault is completely dormant and plan accordingly.