5.5 Earthquake Hits Canada; Felt in US Midwest, New England

joelmax writes "A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit central Canada this afternoon, rattling buildings from Windsor to Montreal to several US states. The epicentre of the quake was in Quebec, 61 kilometres north of Ottawa, according to the US Geological Survey, and struck at 1:41 pm EDT." If you felt this quake, it would be great to put your location in the title of your comments, below — with lat/long coordinates even better.

Central Canada?

[mdielmann]

That's not exactly Central Canada. You can't go much farther east without being in the Atlantic. Granted, it probably impacted more Canadians than an earthquake anywhere else in the country would have.

Nothing in Chicago

[Thelasko]

But I figured a USGS link [usgs.gov] was in order.

Ann Arbor

[CoffeePlease]

42.31124, -83.67578 Thought it was a particularly large person stomping around near my cube. The floor shimmied slightly. It was cool.

Twitter not good enough for you?

[Tsaot]

Or, to save time, you could just try querying the Twitter API for any tweets with the #earthquake tag, check the location of said tweets, and plug those into Google maps. Or, for an even faster (but more constrained) result, you could just check the USGS Did You Feel It? map. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010xwa7/us/index.html [usgs.gov]

Shaking

[rxan]

Mississauga near Pearson Airport. 4th floor of office building. Wavy and shaking. Nothing was broken but you could really feel it. 43.638968,-79.609534

43036N 834124W

[Anonymous Coward]

USGS page for the quake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010xwa7.php

Felt in Flint, MI 43036N 834124W

Re:Central Canada?

[JazMuadDib]

Central Canada is a term used in Canada to represent Ontario and Quebec, as opposed to Western or Atlantic Canada. It has little to do with geography.

Re:5.5? Feh!

[Monkeedude1212]

No, but it did happen on a major fault line that's been there some hundreds of millions of years.

Re:Central Canada?

[ljgshkg]

Ontario and Quebec is actually called Eastern Canada. Those 3 provinces west of Ontario are central. While British Columbia is West.

Re:5.5? Feh!

[gyrogeerloose]

Do you see any tectonic plates meeting in the middle of North America?

Nope, but that has nothing to do with you easterners being a bunch of wimps when it comes to earthquakes. You were even too wimpy to post with your nick--QED. For that matter, it doesn't even have all that much to do with earthquakes. The most powerful earthquake in US history happened on the New Madrid fault, which is a thousand miles or more from the nearest tectonic plate boundary.

Waterloo, Ontario

[kbahey]

They have revised it down to 5.0 per the USGS [usgs.gov].

I did feel it. Was on a recliner sofa working on my laptop, and felt the sofa rock back and forth. Did not think it was a quake at the time. See
http://baheyeldin.com/places/canada/earthquake-2010-june-23-1341-quebecontario.html [slashdot.org]">here.

Re:Central Canada?

[shutdown -p now]

Ontario and Quebec is actually called Eastern Canada. Those 3 provinces west of Ontario are central. While British Columbia is West.

Central Canada [wikipedia.org].

Re:Can 5.5 even be felt at ground zero?

[easterberry]

Nice graph. But this made front page news because YES IT IS. I have lived here my entire life and never felt an earthquake before. Ever. Same with everyone else I know who was all "wtf hooser?". People didn't freak out and frontpage this because earthquakes are common fare round these parts. Whether the fault line causes anything or not is irrelevant to the fact that here in the GTA this is the first earthquake we've actually felt in decades.

Re:5.5? Feh!

[bigredradio]

Snow day? Ha, here in SoCal just a rainy day is a major upset in our routines. Odd how you get used to some things.

Earthquakes = No problem.
Drizzle = OMG WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO!!!

Felt it in Montreal, QC

[anstice8]

I felt it in Montreal, QC, It's the first one I've felt since i was born and I'm 21, so for anyone saying its common then do your research. Just because everyone's talking about it doesnt mean we're freaking out over it, I felt more shaking this morning with construction on my street, so it's not a big deal other than it being rare.

Re:Shaking in Ottawa

[X0563511]

Seismic waves don't travel along the surface. Ok, so the short-range ones do.

Just like echos in water, they bounce around and form "pockets" or whatever they are called where the effect is intensified by constructive interference.

It's entirely possible to have a stretch between you and the epicenter who feels nothing, yet you get your teeth rattled.

Exaggerate much?

[Noren]

I lived in Calgary for a couple of years, which is warmer than Edmonton but not by all that much. It never got anywhere near that cold.

Since recordings began, the only time it dropped to -40C or lower in downtown Edmonton was January 26, 1972 [wikipedia.org]. That was a Wednesday, not a Tuesday, by the way.

Felt Downtown Toronto

[inhuman_4]

My lab is on the 4th floor of an old building downtown Toronto and I definitely felt it. I have lived in this area my whole life and have never felt an earthquake before. At first I didn't know what it was, once I figured it out I started moving to the stairs.

I know lots of people get more and bigger earth quakes then this, but for a first timer like me it's pretty freaky. Ancient 400lb spectrum analyzers don't normally move.

lat=43.660153
lon=-79.376972

Glacier rebound + earthquake facts

[Tarantura]

Just making sure everyone knows their facts: Remember magnitude doesn't measure INTENSITY of shaking but instead amount of energy released at the moment the earthquake begins. Yes, the scale is logarithmic. So, a 5.0 earthquake is 32 times stronger than a 4.0, with a 6.0 releasing more than 1000 times the energy of a 4.0. Feeling that 5.7 on the 15th of this month here in SoCal, the first thing that pops in my head is "How strong is this one going to feel - is it the Big One"? It's actually quite cool to be able to feel the P-waves arrive first followed by the S-waves if the earthquake is both strong enough and far away enough for speed differences to be noticed. It's also nice to notice someone mention the glacial rebound earthquakes of areas in far NE U.S. and S.E. Canada - that's the first thing I guessed the moment I heard about it.

Re:

[thunderlive]

I'm from Hamilton, Ontario Canada my house shook a little, felt odd that's all. 4312'50.61"N 7947'19.50"W

Re:Exaggerate much?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2009/12/13/12141366.html

Re:5.5? Feh!

[Anonymous Coward]

many old non-earthquake safe buildings

Bingo. Houses are built for snow-load back home. (I'm out West now.) There's a lot of brick, stone, and brick/stone-veneer construction that's going to have to be examined pretty carefully now.

A big problem will be chimney fires come fall. It doesn't take much of a kink in a chimney to cause a hot spot. The word has to be put out now to get those inspected. And start early, because there aren't nearly enough trained people to look at it all once the weather turns.

[Can I ask for a Mod Up? -- unless the media clues-in and emphasizes inspections, people aren't going to know. Getting this post visible will at least have the /.ers out there advised to get their chimney checked. Chimney fires suck because they tend to go un-noticed till the attic is on fire, usually after you've gone to bed.)