5.5 Earthquake Hits Canada; Felt in US Midwest, New England 560
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.
Shaking in Ottawa (Score:5, Interesting)
I was in a boardroom on the 6th (top) floor of our building for a 1:30 pm meeting and just as we're getting underway the table and chairs were shaking. Was pretty heavy for about 20 seconds and then faded off over the next minute. We're a lot of government buildings so the policy is to evacuate. We actually tried to continue our meeting but then they finally got to our floor to check it out they found us and told us to leave. As you can guess, no more work is really being done today. It's pretty exciting for us as we don't get this here.
One interesting note, when I did go outside most everyone was on their cell phone and several were stating that they couldn't get service. I would guess because of the increase in volume at that time.
Re:Shaking in Ottawa (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't get touched, I'm in Alberta, but our Branches out in the Toronto Area felt it quite a bit.
Latitude = 43.6325, Longitude = -79.6601
Lat = 43 degrees, 38.0 minutes North
Long = 79 degrees, 39.6 minutes West
Our only Tech out there emailed and asked if our systems were capable of withstanding 5.5 Earthquakes.
We emailed back "We don't know!!! Is everything running? Power okay? Any one sent in any IT Requests?"
To which he responded, "Everything looks good. We're all fine by the way, thanks for checking."
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The surface waves may spread farther in area, but magnitude N is still magnitude N. It's like getting two feet of snow in D.C. -- it's unusual, but other people are still going to laugh at you when you freak out.
Re:Shaking in Ottawa (Score:5, Funny)
We actually tried to continue our meeting but then they finally got to our floor to check it out they found us and told us to leave. As you can guess, no more work is really being done today.
You know, as a resident of Southern California, I don't get many opportunities to call anybody else a weenie*...
* :)
Re:Shaking in Ottawa (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously. 5.5? I don't get out of bed for anything less than a 6.5.
I guess we're just jaded here in SoCal.
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>>You know, as a resident of Southern California, I don't get many opportunities to call anybody else a weenie*...
Seriously.
Since when is a mere 5.5 earthquake front page news on Slashdot? I guess people in other parts of the country don't really understand that a 5.5 is quite weak.
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It's news because it's an unusual geological event, and there are lots of geeks who find this sort of thing interesting. Since it was so widespread, I'm sure they got a lot of submissions from people who were affected by it.
Re:Shaking in Ottawa (Score:4, Informative)
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.
central canada? (Score:4, Funny)
Get a map... its the east side of Canada.
Yes, Toronto is ego central though...
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Not flamebait, it's true! I'm currently in Winnipeg...also known as the center of Canada, and when I read central Canada I was more than a little confused.
Central Canada? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Central Canada? (Score:5, Informative)
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:Central Canada? (Score:5, Informative)
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].
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You must be from Calgary.
Eastern Canada is New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and NFLD/Labrador.
Western Canada is west of Ontario.
Nothing in Chicago (Score:5, Informative)
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I just came back from taking a break outside and my co-worker said he felt it. We're in downtown Chicago. When it happened I was probably on a bridge and would have figured it was just a bus. :)
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How about Natural Resources Canada's Earthquake page [nrcan.gc.ca]?
Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Funny)
I felt it....ohhh wait. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Soccer. There are no soccer teams in America. There are lots of football teams.
By the way, if we win the World Cup, that means the sport gets renamed worldwide. Seriously, we'll do it. How does "FISA World Cup" sound?
Re:I felt it....ohhh wait. (Score:5, Funny)
There are no soccer teams in America. There are lots of football teams
Football is not handegg [saasta.fi].
Re:I felt it....ohhh wait. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I felt it....ohhh wait. (Score:5, Funny)
When a 6'2" tackle who benches 620 and weighs 310lbs of solid muscle tells you he plays football, you don't question it.
Sure you can, you then let him chase you around for, say, 25 seconds and then he tires. Either that or he continues chasing you all the while wondering why no one blew a whistle yet...
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Football. There are no football teams in America. There are lots of American Rugby teams
FTFY
Ann Arbor (Score:5, Informative)
Dr. Evil? (Score:2)
and below the title "1 person likes this" and a big smiley. there's some really crazy people out there..
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Bring in the Army (like Mel Lastman did!) Wait, the Army is already there for G20.
Re:Dr. Evil? (Score:5, Funny)
It was pretty cool.
felt in toronto (Score:5, Funny)
I felt it in my basement apartment in Toronto.
But was it really an earthquake, or did the thought of all those politicians gathering for the G20 make the ground vomit?
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I felt it in Toronto as well. I was 21 floors up, so it was pretty intense. Lights, doors, etc were swinging. According to my security guard, someone on the upper floors of one of the buildings here saw their furniture move across the floor.
Once I made my way down 21 flights of stairs, I spoke to some of my neighbours. About 3/4 of all the residents brought up the G20 jokingly. Pretty much sums up what we think about the event, huh?
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Twitter not good enough for you? (Score:3, Informative)
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In answer to your subject:
No. With all confidence and utmost sincerity, I believe I speak for the majority of Slashdot users when I say, in fact, no, Twitter is not good enough for us. Thank you for your time.
Nothing too serious. (Score:3, Funny)
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I remember a 5.6 aftershock from the '94 Northridge quake, and I was in my apt. about 8 miles from the epicenter. It was a little more than a large truck going by, but it was still no big deal.
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It's only "a large truck going by" if you're not really that close to the epicenter..
Uh, no, not really. They give you readings for the magnitude of where you are. That 6.5 earthquake in Seattle was a 2.5 in Portland.
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In Canada a 5.5 earthquake is news. In California a 55F day is news.
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As said fatguy, all I gotta say is that I tripped over the dog.
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Yes, well, some of us prefer to live in places with four seasons and where the earth doesn't just quaketh because it feels like it. I like my house, and I think it likes me. If it's going to move a couple of feet on the X, Y, or Z axis, I think we've got the kind of relationship where that sort of thing should be a mutual decision.
I mean, I live near Detroit. I'm used to residents up and leaving and various forms of political instability, but when the ground itself decides that it's time to move, then that'
More here (Score:2)
More details here [usgs.gov]. Growing up in Peru, and experiencing many earthquakes in my life time, you would think I would recognize an earthquake but I didn't feel a thing. 5.5 isn't a small shake either.
Shaking (Score:4, Informative)
Mississauga (43.638968,-79.609534) (Score:2)
Felt it in Toronto (Score:2)
Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec (Score:2)
45.47.0N, 73.50.60W.
Felt it at 1:40pm (guess my clock is off), it lasted for a good minute.
Upstate NY (Score:2)
Felt it here in upstate New York. Very pronounced.
Westland Mi and Forest Park Il (Score:2)
Nothing felt in either Forest Park Illinois or Westland (burb of Detroit) Michigan.
Re:Westland Mi and Forest Park Il (Score:5, Funny)
Are we talking about the same Michigan? I was on a flight that landed in Detroit at about 2pm CST, and on the way to my destination I saw NUMEROUS buildings just devastated by the earthquake, a lack of essential services, disruption of civil order, severe deterioration of roads and infrastructure, looting in broad daylight ... you name it.
They must have been near the earthquake's epicenter.
Schenectady NY (Score:2)
Most definitely felt in Schenectady NY (Clifton Park, actually), about 300 miles south-east of the epicenter. Felt like the entire building was a ship on the ocean for a good 10 seconds.
Yay! (Score:2, Funny)
Quebec's finally separating!
Known hazard area (Score:5, Interesting)
It's in part of Canada that is prone to earthquakes, extending roughly along the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River Valleys. The increased activity along here is related to two factors: 1) this is an old "suture" [wikipedia.org] where pieces of continents were accreted onto the rest of North America a long time ago (the later half of the Paleozoic [wikipedia.org]) culminating in the building of the Appalachian Mountain system (the Appalachian Orogeny [wikipedia.org]); 2) the suture stopped being an active plate boundary after the continental pieces were fused onto the continent, but crustal stress still occurs because of the relatively "recent" melting of the continental ice sheets ~10k years ago. The weight of the couple kilometres of ice during the glaciation depressed the crust, and much of central Canada has been experiencing isostatic rebound [wikipedia.org] (i.e. rising back up again) ever since the weight was removed. That process slowly deforms the crust, and when the stress gets too great the rock moves, generating earthquakes. The stress tends to get released along old zones of crustal weakness (i.e. #1).
This seismic hazard map [nrcan.gc.ca] by the Geological Survey of Canada shows the increased risk along the St. Lawrence River rather nicely. More details here [nrcan.gc.ca].
Having said all that, the level of activity in this part of Canada pales in comparison to earthquakes in the area of an active plate boundary, such as California, where the deformation rates are higher, the earthquakes more frequent, and often higher magnitude. It means that building codes along the St. Lawrence-Ottawa River Valleys are fairly strict when it comes to earthquake resistance, just in case, but a significant earthquake is still outside most people's everyday experience. I'm sure people are freaking out (I'm ~1000km away, so I felt nothing).
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Richmond Hill (North Toronto) (Score:2)
Latitude: 43.86
Longitude: -79.37
Everyone was on their cell, and I heard complaints of no 3G service.
I was on the 3rd floor and everyone immediately stood up (i.e. noticeable), but it wasn't strong enough to shake objects on my desk. People on the 1st floor didn't notice anything.
Probably not the quake (Score:2)
What you felt was probably not the quake, just ATI firing up their new silicon for Southern Islands. :)
-Charlie
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Heh, according the the people I know that work there, they actually are working this week to bring it up. Or, I should say, bring "something" up. No product names mentioned, but it is "sorry folks, my schedule is going to be insane the next month or two" season over there.
Belleville Ont (Score:2)
The Quake is a lie (Score:2)
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I'm working in a skyscrapper next to the central station in Montreal.
Most people I know have books of pictures of other people. But if the sky is your thing, more power to you. I'd love to know how you identify one sky from another though.
Felt it in VT (Score:2)
I'm impressed! (Score:5, Funny)
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.
...but do NOT post your zip+4 code, as that would be a huge invasion of privacy. :D
Question on location posts (Score:2)
The article says to post your location if you felt the quake. Should you post your location if you feel FOR the victims of this horrible light trembling? If so, can the mods change my title to "In my office, on the third floor of my house"? Thanks.
-Charlie
CHAOS in Upstate New York (Score:5, Funny)
They I remembered I'm in Upstate New York. People here can't drive. The state is broke. Yesterday looked pretty much the same.
Re:CHAOS in Upstate New York (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh well, you can't always get what you want. And on the roads here you're lucky to get anything better than rear-ended.
Ottawa: Cool. (Score:2)
Strongest one I have ever felt. I felt and extremely minor one before and slept through the last one.
I am on the 4th floor. Significant shaking for about 30 seconds. Long enough to walk into several different rooms, then decide to retreat from vibrating windows in case they shattered(didn't know enough to know if it peaked). There seemed to be almost another minute of very gentle rocking that was still moving the monitor etc... Turned on a Radio to find out where the epicenter was. Figured it had to be pret
Mt. Laurel, NJ: Lat=39 59.5min N Long=74 53.0 W (Score:2)
Waterloo, Ontario (Score:3, Informative)
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.
42.9837N 81.2497W - London, Ont (Score:2)
Just happened to be out and about at the time.
Whew, I was worried there for a minute (Score:5, Funny)
Thank God. That's thousands of miles from America.
Heads will roll (Score:4, Interesting)
Any word on who they're planning to charge for failing to predict this monster?
Kingston Ontario, 44.227644,-76.491965 (Score:4, Interesting)
Felt Downtown Toronto (Score:4, Informative)
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 (Score:3, Informative)
5.5? Feh! (Score:5, Insightful)
On the 5th floor of the Key Bank building. EVERYBODY PANIC!!!
What a bunch of wimps.
Here in southern California, a mere 5.5 would hardly even arouse anyone's interest. Probably make page 1 of the local section unless the Padres made a big trade; then it would be relegated to page 2.
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Here in southern California, a mere 5.5 would hardly even arouse anyone's interest. Probably make page 1 of the local section unless the Padres made a big trade; then it would be relegated to page 2.
We had a 6 something earthquake a couple of months ago here in LA. It was one of those slowy-rolly ones that really only cranks up the scale that high because they last a while. I could hear people in other apartments going 'WooO!!!" like they were riding their wild apartment.
Re:5.5? Feh! (Score:5, Insightful)
Where as in Edmonton, Alberta that's a regular Tuesday (in January).
It's all a matter of perspective.
If your on a ocean going vessel and your hit by a 30m rouge wave that's a minor incident.
If on the other hand your riding your bike through the park and get hit by a 30m rouge wave You may drown and the event is going to make headlines the world over.
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Rouge waves? Well if you're in the gulf maybe, though more of a brown/black wave...
Re:5.5? Feh! (Score:5, Funny)
It's all of that illegal make-up dumping. It leads to rouge waves, mascara storms and glitter tornadoes.
Exaggerate much? (Score:3, Informative)
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.
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What a bunch of wimps.
Newsflash: people don't behave calm when faced with something they're not accustomed with.
What would happen in California if several feet of snow ended up on the streets overnight?
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Wimps?
2" of snow would make you cry for weeks. In Ottawa, we finally caved in and cheered for an extra 6" so we could break the 170" record only a few years ago. It's all about what you're accustomed to.
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Yeah. In Chile we laugh at you California people making big deal of 7.0 magnitude earthquakes. Here those are called aftershocks.
For the record -- I was 60 miles from the epicenter of the 8.8 on February 27th. The quake wasn't that bad, but the aftershocks every 15 minutes for the next 3 days got tiring.
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No, but it did happen on a major fault line that's been there some hundreds of millions of years.
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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.
Re:5.5? Feh! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be worried about quakes too if I lived someplace that wasn't accustomed to having them and had many old non-earthquake safe buildings.
So how's your tornado shelter?
Re:5.5? Feh! (Score:5, Informative)
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.)
Re:5.5? Feh! (Score:4, Interesting)
In Kitchener ON. Stuff was rattling on the shelves here... about 150 miles southwest of the epicenter.
The largest earthquake ever recorded in the U.S. was in 1964 in Alaska [wikipedia.org]. It was 9.2 on the Richter scale. The second largest measured earthquake. In contrast the New Madrid Earthquake [wikipedia.org] (about 150 miles south of Saint Louis on the Mississippi River) was estimated from 7.5 to 8.1. However, the geology of the Midwest (one big piece of underlying bedrock covering most of the U.S. Midwest and Southern Ontario) allows the effects of an earthquake to be felt with little diminishment quite far from the epicenter, unlike earthquakes in zones like California (where the effects are not transmitted anywhere near as far). The underlying reason for the New Madrid Earthquake Zone looks to be a failed rift valley causing a weak spot in the sheet of bedrock covering the Midwest.
Also, ca. 300 years ago there was an estimated 8.7 to 9.2 Megathrust Earthquake off the Cascadian coast in 1700 [wikipedia.org] (off the west coast of North America from mid Vancouver Island in B.C. Canada, and down along Washington and Oregon States. This was large enough to cause a large tsunamis to strike the coast of central Japan. It is expected that this area will experience this type and magnitude periodically (every ca. 500 years). I know in Vancouver, and most of coastal B.C. for that matter, that extensive earthquake retrofitting has taken place, and new buildings have to meet tough earthquake codes.
Re:5.5? Feh! (Score:5, Informative)
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!!!
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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!!!
LOL, yeah, that's true! Major mayhem on the highway whenever it rains down here but that's not due to panic, it's due to it being way too easy to get a drivers license in this state.
Re:5.5? Feh! (Score:5, Funny)
The key to driving in the rain in SoCal is to drive as fast possible through it; therefore you spend less time on the road and minimize your exposure to the dangers of rain.
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Each step is 10 times stronger than the last, so a 6.0 is 10 times stronger than a 5.0. Pretty simple.
The REASON why it makes front page news is that this isn't a techtonic plate shift like most in the California Region. So-Cal is PRONE to that kind of activity based on the geography underlying it.
This here section of Canada, isn't along the edge of a tectonic plate. Last one to hit was about 20 years ago.
Re:You big babies. It's 5.0, not 5.5. (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't worry. When California gets its largest quake since 1935, people will stand up and notice that too.
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Another one in Cleveland, at 3050 Prospect Ave.
Lat: 41.501395
Lon: -81.666189
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That's funny. How high up are you?
I'm in a basement just over the river in Cambridge and we didn't notice a thing.
Re:Can 5.5 even be felt at ground zero? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's unusual for the location.
No, it isn't. [usgs.gov]
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Glad it's not the later.
Yeah, me too. We're at now, now. We'll be at then, soon, but whatever you're seeing now is happening now.
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Same thing happens every time I walk to the printer...
checks girth
Oh...