They tell me that we, in Southern Ontario, just had an earthquake. A 5.5 earthquake for that matter! The center of it was just north of Ottawa but people as far south as Hamilton are telling me that they felt it.
The first tremor hit at 1:40 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Buildings in Toronto and Ottawa were evacuated in the minutes following the tremors.
“Earthquakes across eastern Canada are definitely rare but we do have them,” said Johanna Wagstaffe, a CBC seismologist and meteorologist. “There are small fault lines along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. There is a relatively active fault line that runs parallel to the St. Lawrence Valley. It’s about 1,000 kilometres long.” The last major earthquake we saw on that fault line was a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in 1998, she said.
The last 5.5 earthquake I felt was in 1996 in White Rock, BC. The earthquake happened around the Seattle area. I was packing up my bridal shower items and was talking with my Mom in their living room. Their house swayed a bit and my Mom’s china cabinet shook. I heard the glasses hitting each other ever so slightly. My parents live on the side of a hill, over 1/2 of their house over hangs the hill, built on stilts. I think the word is Cantilever. Where do you go to hide in a place like that?!
So to all of you out there that live in this region… did you feel it?!
p.s. enter to win over $20 in coupons from Aunt Jemima in the post before this one…
I felt it in Belleville, ON. I was a little amazed at the ranking (5.5) as I had always thought an earthquake of that magnitude opened up the ground and swallowed up entire homes. LOL Funny how your imagination runs wild when you've never experienced it before.
Eek! That's scary! I've never been in a quake before, but my house is always rockin'. Something having to do with boys, methinks. Very glad you're okay.
So glad I moved lol. Weathers/natural disasters have been on the move a lot this year. I thought maybe I was just watching more news then I had before. But things seem different to me.
Yep, I did shake in Mississauga!
We shook in Ottawa. I was on the 18th floor of our office tower. It was pretty scary.
Hubby and C didn't feel it either. But I did…working on the 4th floor. At first I thought is was a legshaker…but then realized…that wasn't a leg shaker…especially since the cubicle walls were swaying and everyone else was standing up wondering what was going on. We work in an old wooden building…some people said the beams were swaying too.
I was at the cottage and felt it. At first I thought it was me then I noticed everything was shaking. I yelled at Tobei to get Little Man as Little Man was down for his nap. Then we all stood outside wondering WTF one is supposed to do when surrounded by trees.