Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Earthquake in Toronto?

Wow - The whole building just shook. I thought it was vertigo, but I went on Twitter and it looks like a whole bunch of people felt it.

Nothing at this Earthquake Forecast site yet, but should show up soon. [Update: Full information on the quake's specifics from USGS here.]

I didn't know Toronto was on a fault line. Now I see this from a CBC site:
Canada is a veritable hotbed of seismic activity. The country averages three to four earthquakes a day – more than 1,200 a year. The vast majority of them can only be detected by the sensitive equipment that measures seismic activity.

But – a few times a year – Canadians do feel the earth move. The most active parts of the country are the western and southwestern regions of British Columbia, including Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands, which are struck more than 200 times a year. However, Eastern Canada has also been hit by major quakes, and experts cannot rule out a major earthquake hitting Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.

Except for reports of one death in an earthquake in Montreal in 1732, nobody has ever been killed by a quake in Canada.

On Nov. 18, 1929, a magnitude 7.2 quake rattled the floor of the Atlantic Ocean about 250 kilometres south of Newfoundland, which was then a British colony. Nobody died from the quake, but 29 drowned after a tsunami swept across the Burin Peninsula.

G-20 related, or just random?

25 comments:

  1. We felt it too! On Yonge near St Clair W.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm out in the burb's and it lasted almost 20 sec....WOW!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, glad to know i wasnt dizzy, i could see the walls in my building move and my desk was shaking. Seems to be ok now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. your the first person on the net to report on this too i believe lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. felt it in oakville too.. everyone here is in shock...

    ReplyDelete
  6. yeah prob 10-20 seconds here in oakville too - wow..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Build I am at York U shook for 15+ seconds 10 sec very strong

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm off Bathurst, between Sheppard and Wilson; lasted about 20-30 seconds here, too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I just felt it on beecroft in North York! and now there is a huge crowd outside the subway building!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Felt it at Yonge and Sheppard as well. The Toronto District School Board building has evacuated.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I felt it too, we are in Scarborough, ON. My computer screen was shaking, I thought I was having a nervous breakdown or something lol, lasted about 5 seconds. Co-Workers confirm. My pal also called me from the Danforth, Greek town in Toronto, and his house shook.

    ReplyDelete
  12. i felt it too here in northcliffe.
    im in front of the laptop and all the other furnitures and my table is shaking. it took so long!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I felt it too! I was sitting in my basement bedroom and all of sudden my bed started to vibrate. My sister had mardi gras beads hanging on a hook and they started to shake significantly. I actually went to a window to see if there was a storm outside.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow - I just felt it a few minutes ago near Ossington and Bloor. I've never felt anything like it and didn't know what to do so I was a little freaked out. I'm glad to hear that others felt it as I was feeling a little weird.....hope it's over.

    ReplyDelete
  15. felt on 9th floor of richmond and university in toronto.. slightly worried we haven't evac'd yet :S

    ReplyDelete
  16. seemed very strong on 5th floor Elizabeth & Gerard. Other buildings nearby seem to have evacuated but not us.

    ReplyDelete
  17. WE felt it at work Church and Yonge!! We were playing paper airplanes, when we felt the building move for 20 sec's or so!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. As someone who grew up in southern California, where schools had more "Drop drills" (earthquake drills) than fire drills, I think it's important to review basic earthquake safety. Check out http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm. Be sure to tell the kids what to do in case they're at school or at a friend's house. I was at a sleepover during one of the worst earthquakes, and some kids who were used to 'dropping' under their dining room tables, instinctively ran for my friend's GLASS table!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Sounds like it was a minor quake. Of course I have been through quite a few, so to me it sounds like a piece of cake. Glad to hear you are ok.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Good to hear from everyone, glad all are safe. Paper airplanes, though?

    Wonder what the steel-cage builders at the G-20 were thinking while it was going on.

    ReplyDelete
  21. this was crazy.. I was at work when it happened I was scared.. thank god all is well.. I found an amazing video of this in action at june23earthquake.com

    ReplyDelete
  22. this was crazy.. I was at work when it happened I was scared.. thank god all is well.. I found an amazing video of this in action at june23earthquake.com/ ( now make sure you dont use my exact post

    ReplyDelete
  23. So what do you think caused it - the Rubashkin sentence or the Emmanuel case?

    ReplyDelete