Magnitude 5.5 quake moved the ground in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and several U.S. states

[snagglepuss]

Source: Globe and Mail

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit central Canada this afternoon, rattling buildings from Windsor to Montreal and several U.S. states.

Twitter users as far away as Springfield, Mass. and Traverse City, Mich. reported feeling tremors. A Globe reporter in Montreal said that city also shook.











Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/earthquake-shakes-central-canada-us/article1614941/

---

15 minutes ago. I'm in Toronto and my apartment was revereratng. I'm only on the 8th floor so I was shocked, didn't think I would have felt any quake here, thought it was contruction next door.

[hedgehog]

1. If you felt it, go to this link:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/

The USGS uses this info to predict the effect of future quakes.

[snagglepuss]

2. I looked at the page but it doesn't have a link to file a report. Does one

simply send them an email?

[Adsos Letter]

4. Here:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010xwa7/us/form.en.enabled.html

[snagglepuss]

37. Thanks. Have filed a report. nt

[hedgehog]

5. The page has a list of earthquakes. Click on the one that

happened in Canada, and you will be taken to a page with a pop-up box to make your report. They'll ask things like did furniture move, did pictures on the wall move, etc. The damage from a quake depends on both magnitude and the rock it travels through, so this info is useful.

[snagglepuss]

38. Thanks. Have filed a report and included a suggestion to improve the

instructions.

[AikidoSoul]

62. Expect many more of them. The melting of the glaciers, the added weight of the water on the earth's

crust -- all of this adds up over time. And now we have oil gushing out from beneath the earth's crust adding to the weight.

I can't do the math, but it has to be an astronomical amount of additional tons. Something has to give.

[KurtNYC]

3. felt in 12534 - columbia county

[TrogL]

6. Breaking News: Earthquake felt in Toronto

Source: Global News

A small earthquake was felt in parts of Ontario Wednesday morning—places like Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa experienced the quake.

Several buildings were evacuated and residents we spoke to say they felt a rumble as the ground shaked.

Very few details are being provided at this point— Global News will update you as soon as further information becomes available.

Read more: http://www.globaltvbc.com/Breaking+News+Earthquake+felt+Toronto/3191707/story.html

---

I grew up there. Earthquakes you can actually feel are extremely rare.

My niece who lives in Toronto felt it.

[Renew Deal]

7. 5.5 33 Miles north of Ottowa

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2010xwa7.php

[SidDithers]

8. I'm 42 and this is the first time I can remember actually feeling it...

Just sitting here at my desk, when i started swaying side to side. At first I thought it was an inner ear infection :)

Sid

[MineralMan]

11. Well, we longtime California residents scoff at your earthquake!

[droidamus2]

50. Ain't it true

I moved from California to Vermont 5 years ago. People here were saying they could feel but it couldn't have been to much movement because I didn't feel it at all. Of course after you have been around 5.5 where you are only a few miles from the epicenter something like this just feels like a big semi rolling past your house.

[theHandpuppet]

66. That response gets really tiring

The effects of even a moderate earthquake are vastly different between those you have in California and quakes in the East.

[Bill McBlueState]

51. Ha, me too.

I figured I was either having inner ear issues or had finally gone nuts. Both of those things may be true, but there was definitely an earthquake.

[Ikonoklast]

53. No sex threads, por favor.

42 years is sure a long time to be waiting for it...














:P

[aquart]

9. New Yorkers near the border report feeling it, too.

[bigwillq]

13. Yup

Friend on Facebook that lives upstate said she felt it.

[MineralMan]

10. Vraiment? Un tremblement de terre? J'ai peur.

:scared:

[Warpy]

12. Here's some historical perspective

http://www.whaton.uwaterloo.ca/waton/s893.html

Quebec is geologically active, more so than most people think. I felt the strong Chicoutimi aftershock in 1988 in Boston, although I hadn't felt the original quake some days earlier. That aftershock gave people something to talk about for some time.

[CraftyGal]

14. Here is more information....

http://www.globalnational.com/story.html?id=3191685">Earthquake shakes parts of eastern Canada, U.S.

A 5.5-magniude earthquake hit southern Ontario and western Quebec Wednesday afternoon.

It started at 1:40 p.m. ET and lasted for about 30 seconds, rocking buildings and sending people onto the streets.

Via Rail stopped its trains that were en route in the Ottawa-Montreal line.

There are small fault lines along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, as well as one that runs along the St. Lawrence Valle

CraftyGal

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. 5.5 Ontario/Quebec region

Source: USGS

If you just found yourself shaking:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2010xwa7.php



No link yet.

[slackmaster]

16. Maybe Canada will finally fall off into the Arctic Ocean

;-)

[juajen]

18. Not a very neighborly reaction, eh? NT

[YewNork]

49. Canada - the country above the United States

Or so my friends there say.

[JuniperLea]

17. A New York DUer felt it and posted!

Chilling... I was born and raised in EQ Country, USA (So Cal) and I still freak out about these things.

[MineralMan]

24. My parents tell me that an earthquake threw me out of bed when

I was 5 years old. Apparently, when they came into the room, I was lying on the floor giggling. It was centered in Bakersfield around 1950. Big one.

[JuniperLea]

26. That's a great story!

The first one I remember was in the late 60's. I was playing hopscotch on the sidewalk, and it hit as I was standing on one foot and leaning over to pick up my stone... fell right on my butt! My dad was mowing the lawn. He felt it and turned off the mower at the exact moment I fell... I thought I broke the mower somehow from several yards away:)

[KansDem]

28. I remember the San Fernando Valley quake of 1971...

I was lying in bed debating about whether or not to get out of bed. I had just started city college and had a 7am class--it was a remedial English class--that I had to get ready for. Well, the quake hit and everything in my bedroom started rocking and shaking. Needless to say, I got out of bed in a hurry!

[JuniperLea]

34. I was brushing my teeth...

And my hands were wet so I couldn't open the bathroom door! I started banging on the door, and my brother opened it from the hallway. Everyone had gathered there... we just stood there staring at each other! We could see the wave go through the house. We lived in a big old 1918 wood frame house in Lomita, CA, and you could see the back door from the front door (shotgun house I think is the term). Each room twisted a different direction as the wave went through... very creepy.

The following morning, after enduring hundreds of after-shocks, my "fun-loving" father decided it would be just hilarious to grab the foot-board of my bed, shake it vigorously, and yell... EARTHQUAKE!!! Yeah, he's a joker... maybe that's where I get it! :rofl:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

39. In some ways there's more reason to freak out in the East...

It's not like we have earthquake preparedness foremost in our minds over here. Buildings aren't constructed with that kind of disaster in mind.

[Purveyor]

19. I felt it here, mid-michigan.

[XemaSab]

20. That's a decent sized quake

:o

[Newsjock]

21. Story here

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/earthquake-shakes-central-canada/article1614941

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit central Canada this afternoon, rattling buildings from Windsor to Montreal and several U.S. states.

The epicentre of the quake was in Quebec, 61 kilometres north of Ottawa, according to U.S. Geological Survey, and struck at 1:41 p.m.EDT.

The Ottawa newsroom was evacuated at about 1:43 p.m. The Toronto newsroom also shook.

... The sidewalks quickly filled with workers who decided to evacuate their buildings. Within minutes of the tremour, cellphone service in Ottawa was down, possibly because callers had overloaded the system, though the exact cause was not known.

Twitter users as far away as Springfield, Mass. and Traverse City, Mich. reported feeling tremors. A Globe reporter in Montreal said that city also shook.

[MineralMan]

22. Wow! O! La, La!

I am bilingual. Je suis bilingue. :rofl:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

40. Merde!

Moi aussi!

[MineralMan]

45. Well, see, I'm preparing for my move to Canada. When in

Saskatoon, do as the Saskatooners do. That's my motto. I know, I know...nobody speaks French in Saskatoon, but never mind. I want to be in full compliance, officer. Can't we settle this right here?

Wait...you say Fargo isn't in Canada? Aw, geez...uff da! Now I'll have to unpack my passport. Damn!

[ClusterFreak]

23. I live in Niagara Region...about 20 miles west of U.S. border...

I was driving and felt/heard an odd, loud, quick vibration on the left side of my vehicle. I couldn't figure it out...thought I hit or ran over a rock or something metallic...but felt no bump underfoot of any kind. Completely smooth. Only explanation might be that the road beneath me swayed against the direction I was driving or something...??

Oh yeah...the poster with the joke about Canada and the Arctic Ocean...

I don't get it. Not offensive...just don't get the joke.

What?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

41. I'm glad it wasn't worse than that!

A friend of mine was in Mexico City when a big one hit. He watched a building fall in front of the car he was in!

[iverglas]

67. "the poster with the joke about Canada and the Arctic Ocean"

Don't blame Canada; blame me. ;)

That poster took a particular dislike to me in the gun dungeon quite some time ago -- to the point that he won't see (or at least will claim not to see) this post -- and seems to have generalized it.

We Canadians, we're just so perfect and so favoured by god and man in every way, it inspires resentment, you see!

[AngryOldDem]

25. Also felt in Dayton, OH, which is hell-and-gone from Quebec/Ontario.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/people-report-feeling-earth-shake-locally-779384.html

I had heard that it was felt in northern Ohio, but Dayton's in the southwest.

I'd think that this would be a tad stronger than a 5.5, then, especially if buildings in Dayton were evacuated as a precaution.

ON EDIT: Downtown Dayton has had some power outages and there are reports of people trapped in stalled elevators on the outskirts of downtown.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

42. Eastern US/Canada earthquakes tend to be felt over a much wider area

regardless of the magnitude. It has something to do with the bedrock, but I can't recall exactly what.

Now they're saying this was a 5.0...

[AngryOldDem]

60. Yeah, I heard that later on.

But a funny thing about that is, it was not felt in Bloomington, Indiana, and the reason Indiana University geologists gave was because of the bedrock. It was felt here in the metro Indianapolis area, although I somehow missed it.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

61. I think some people are more sensitive to it than others.

My husband has felt mild earthquakes that I never noticed.

[Arrowhead2k1]

27. I'm in Toronto right now and I felt it.

It was like someone was lightly kicking the back of my chair. It was quite nice actually. :)

[snagglepuss]

29. I'm in TO as well. Some LOL comments on CBC message board.

"Any body check to see if parliament hill in Ottawa is still there? The whole place was falling apart as it is, both physically and metaphorically."



"Tsuanmi reported on Harper's Fake Lake."






Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/06/23/tor-earthquake.html#socialcomments#ixzz0rhlxxGVD

[arikara]

57. And another...

Ottawa government buildings evacuated. Productivity unaffected.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

43. LOL

Nature's own Reiki.

[Liberalynn]

30. My cousin lives in a suburb of Rochester NY and she felt it

I live in the Finger Lakes and didn't feel it at all.

I did feel the one along the Attica fault line in 1984. I was in my dorm at Nazareth College of Rochester, and I remember a girl on the floor below me yelling we are being "nuked" because the fire department sirens started to go off and they did sound a bit like air raid sirens. :rofl:

[Habibi]

36. I'm right in Rochester, and was trying to take a nap!

Bed shuddered for a good minute after the initial shock was over. So much for napping!

[Liberalynn]

46. That's a rude way to be rousted from a nap.

:)

[Clintonista2]

32. I'm in ottawa and I thought someone was bulldozing the house

I was in the basement and ran upstairs because I thought the basement roof was gonna collapse on me

[GoddessOfGuinness]

44. I'm very glad to know it didn't!

Should be some time before it happens again. :-)

[iverglas]

48. not saying where I am ;)

but it was exactly like that. I was on the second floor of a house with thick stone basement walls that sits directly on bedrock, and I was pretty sure all the walls and ceilings on the ground floor were falling in and about to take my floor with them, so I ran down the stairs and outside pretty smartly.

When I saw all the neighbours doing the same thing, at least I figured my house wasan't falling apart because of that frozen burst pipes thing in the kitchen ceiling back in February. ;)

I liked the comment at one news site, asking whether the tsunami warning for Lake Harper had been cancelled.

[Heywood J]

31. I'm a bit surprised to have felt it.

The last one we had here was years ago, under Youngstown, OH and it was significantly less powerful. Every now and then, the shield gives out one to wake us up.

[Autumn Colors]

33. Felt it in Torrington, CT !

I lived in L.A. during the Northridge earthquake (which was my first ever earthquake experience).

I did feel some long rumbling here, but I really just thought someone was using construction equipment nearby. Was surprised to log on and see there was a quake.

My ex thought I was dumb to add earthquake insurance to our homeowners policy .... after having lived in L.A., I figured it was so cheap that it was worth it, but he thought it was ridiculous and laughed.

[chollybocker]

35. Definitely felt it here in Montreal.

11:45, some pretty good shaking for about ten-fifteen seconds. My cat ran under the bed. We both survived.

[Liberalynn]

47. That had to be scary

but I am glad you and kitty came through okay!

[Joanne98]

52. Right before the G20 meeting.

[Demeter]

56. It's a Sign

Of what, I'm not sure. Maybe it's a good day to skip a conference!

[haele]

54. Pretty wide spread shaking - not like CA quakes.

A 5.5 here might actually be felt as far away as 150 - 200 miles depending on where and how deep it is, and then it peters out pretty quickly.
The terrain in the East Coast might be primarily bedrock, but it's brittle and fractured, and the faults tend to be closer to the surface. And the older buildings don't tend to be as well built to a good earthquake code as the west coast buildings are.
Just think of it as a quick hug from Old Auntie Nature. (Hope everyone is okay.)
:hi: from Sunny, Shaky Southern California!

Haele

[snagglepuss]

63. Heard that it was a rather deep quake, 22 km I believe. I'm really surprised

it coverd such a vast area. I thought was a that a construction crew had seriously messed up right next door to me. I dismissed any thought it might be a quake even though most everything in my apartment was shaking.

[Demeter]

55. It's Now Rated Only a 5

I felt it. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Second floor, my keyboard shelf gently rocking into my wrists. I thought I was hallucinating. We don't have earthquakes here.

[arikara]

58. I have relatives in Ajax

right close to the nuclear power plant. I would not live there for all the tea in China but it doesn't bother them at all. The whole Toronto area gave me the creeps when I visited. Nothing but massive highways and cell phone towers.

[Earth_First]

59. Didn't personally feel it, but many friends and coworkers reported feeling it in Rochester, NY...

Right around lunch time, so I probably was just hungry and couldn't tell the difference...

[time_has_come]

64. What a terrible story. No mention of injuries, or damage.

[laundry_queen]

65. There were reports of damage near the epicenter

in Quebec, including a collapsed bridge. No reports of injuries that I've heard though.

[wordpix]

68. earthquake on E. Coast? Mother Nature is mighty angry at us!