Earthquake of 5.0 magnitude rattles across Ontario and Quebec
Posted Jun 23, 2010 12:23 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An earthquake rocked residents of southern Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States Wednesday afternoon.
The U.S. Geological Survey described the temblor as a magnitude 5.0 that occurred at 1:41 p.m. ET and was centred about 60 kilometres north of Ottawa, in western Quebec.
Residents in parts of upstate New York and Vermont also reported feeling the ground shake.
Within minutes of the quake, the Internet came alive with people saying they felt the earth rumble in cities across Ontario and Quebec, including Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
The quake seemed to last for about 30 seconds.
Witnesses in downtown Toronto also described feeling a prolonged tremor that shook desks, rattled bookshelves and caused paintings on walls to shake.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injury.
Holly Rockbrune, 25, works for an insurance company. She was home for lunch when she began to notice something strange was happening.
“It was odd because I was in the kitchen making lunch and I could hear banging,” Rockbrune said.
“I went into the living room and everything was rattling, but I didn’t think much of it so I went back into the kitchen. It only lasted a few seconds.”
It was one of the most significant quakes ever measured in the region, according to the USGS.
The two largest quakes in western Quebec occurred in 1935 at magnitude 6.1 and in 1732 at a magnitude of 6.2, according to the agency.
It said earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains, although less frequent than in the west, are typically felt over a much broader region.
