Three powerful earthquakes have struck off the coast of Canada, the US Geological Survey said.

A magnitude 6.8 quake struck just 40 minutes after a magnitude 6.7 quake struck 117 miles off the coast of Port Hardy, a town on the north east end of Vancouver Island.

They were followed by a magnitude 6.5 quake and they were all in the same Sovanco transform fault.

It is believed that the first quake struck at a depth of 21 miles.


The second one was much shallower at a depth of 6 miles and was 122 miles south west of Port Hardy.

There are currently no immediate reports of casualties or damage following the quakes and no tsunami warning has been issued.