23 Jun 10: Report of Earthquake in ON, QC

[The Bread Guy]

This from the U.S.G.S.:

Magnitude 5.5
Date-Time

    * Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 17:41:42 UTC
    * Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 01:41:42 PM at epicenter
    * Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 45.955°N, 75.546°W
Depth 19.2 km (11.9 miles)
Region ONTARIO-QUEBEC BORDER REGION, CANADA
Distances

    * 49 km (31 miles) N (349°) from Cumberland, Ontario, Canada
    * 52 km (33 miles) N (10°) from Gatineau, Qu�bec, Canada
    * 58 km (36 miles) NNE (16°) from Hull, Qu�bec, Canada
    * 61 km (38 miles) N (11°) from OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 11.5 km (7.1 miles); depth +/- 5.3 km (3.3 miles)
Parameters NST=294, Nph=311, Dmin=160.3 km, Rmss=1.12 sec, Gp= 25°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source

    * USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID us2010xwa7

edited to add maps of epicentre - source:  USGS Google Earth co-ordinates

 

[missing1]

Felt it here in Lansdowne by the Thousand Islands

 

[observor 69]

Felt in Toronto also. Unaccustomed to an earthquake it took the TV to tell me what had just happened.

 

[boyblue]

Felt it here in Toronto was on the deck and the hanging flower baskets were swaying back and forth lasted around 20 seconds.

 

[Old Sweat]

The following is taken from a Government of Canada site and explains the occurence of earthquakes in the Ottawa Valley. It is reproduced under the Fair Comment provisions of the Copyright Act.

Geoscape Canada

Geoscape Ottawa-Gatineau
Earthquakes
 



Why do we have earthquakes?
The Ottawa-Gatineau region is located far from active tectonic plate boundaries, the usual source of earthquakes, but it does have a seismic history.  Within this region, the Earth's crust is being compressed.  Once the accumulated stress exceeds the strength of the crust, it is released by slippage along reactivated faults of the Ottawa-Bonnechere graben.  Although this area has a moderate risk of a damaging earthquake, a devastating earthquake is unlikely.



What we feel
Magnitude (Richter scale), or size, reflects the amount of fault movement at the source of an earthquake.  However, because the strength of shaking generally decreases with distance from the epicentre, what we feel and the amount of damage differ from place to place.  Intensity is a measure of shaking at a specific place and ranges from I to XII (modified Mercalli scale). For any earthquake there will be one magnitude and many intensities.




Did you know?... On average, we feel an earthquake of intensity III or higher once every 3 years in Ottawa-Gatineau.

Ottawa-Gatineau was shaken into the year 2000 by a magnitude 5.2 earthquake centred at Kipawa, north of North Bay, about 300 km from Ottawa. In Ottawa, this event had a felt intensity of III.






Protecting ourselves
By evaluating the local history of earthquakes and the local geology, seismologists can produce maps predicting maximum ground motion or intensity for a region. Seismological data are used to set our national building codes that specify the engineering design requirements for earthquake-resistant buildings.

 

[TimBit]

Some people at NDHQ conveniently took it upon them to leave following the tremor, claiming God knows what excuse to do so. .. shame.

 

[PMedMoe]

Some people at NDHQ conveniently took it upon them to leave following the tremor, claiming God knows what excuse to do so. .. shame.

Shocking......not.  :

 

[The Bread Guy]

With a bit of info from the United States Geological Survey (USGS):

.... People in the large Western Quebec seismic zone (see map below) have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from larger ones for three centuries. The two largest damaging earthquakes occurred in 1935 (magnitude 6.1) at the northwestern end of the seismic zone, and in 1732 (magnitude 6.2) 450 km (280 mi) away at the southeastern end of the zone where it caused significant damage in Montreal. Earthquakes cause damage in the zone about once a decade. Smaller earthquakes are felt three or four times a year ....

Hope everyone feeling some tremors is safe, folks.

 

[TimBit]

Considering we here felt the worst of it, I would say they are milnews. My wife complained that a coffee tin fell off the fridge, but that`s it ;D The cat was a bit like "WTF???" though... apparently.

 

[PMedMoe]

Finally got the page for The Ottawa Citizen to come up.

Article Link

Ottawa-area residents feel the quakes because of the nature of the Canadian Shield.

The extremely old, very compacted rock here transmits shock waves twice as far as the relatively younger, looser rock on the west coast of North America.

Thus, an earthquake of the same magnitude in southern British Columbia or California would cause more devastation because of the population density, but would be felt over a far smaller distance.

Interesting.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Update from USGS:

Magnitude 5.0
Date-Time

    * Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 17:41:42 UTC
    * Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 01:41:42 PM at epicenter
    * Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 45.862°N, 75.457°W
Depth 18 km (11.2 miles) set by location program
Region ONTARIO-QUEBEC BORDER REGION, CANADA
Distances

    * 38 km (24 miles) N (356°) from Cumberland, Ontario, Canada
    * 44 km (28 miles) NNE (21°) from Gatineau, Qu�bec, Canada
    * 51 km (32 miles) NNE (26°) from Hull, Qu�bec, Canada
    * 53 km (33 miles) NNE (21°) from OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada ....

Earthquakes Canada:

June 23 1:45 pm Eastern Time - A moderate earthquake has occurred in the Ottawa-Montreal region. More information to follow

 

[Timmy!]

Must of been Bloc Québécois trying to separate. Failed again.  :nod:

 

[J.J]

Felt it in Windsor....

 

[The Bread Guy]

Map of where it was felt and how strongly:

Click here if you want to file a report telling the USGS what you felt where.

 

[cn]

Felt it here in oakville, was not as bad as the msm is making it seem (every story on right now is somehow related to the quake). 

I was in the Philippines back in '97 and went through a 6+ magnitude quake, now that shook me up (pun fully intended). 

 

[GK .Dundas]

Baby , you were wonderful... :nod: ;D

 

[57Chevy]

You can download goggle earth and see all the earthquakes everywhere.
check it out here: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

 

[Armymedic]

My daughters were home, being their first day after school's finishing for the year.

I get a call from Petawawa, all in a panic...

"Daddy the house is shaking"

Just enough to move stuff on the shelves, and cause frayed nerves, but no damages.

The epicenter was about 200 km east of Petawawa.