Two earthquakes rattled buildings and nerves in parts of southwestern New Brunswick on Wednesday morning.
Earthquakes Canada says a 2.7-magnitude earthquake was reported at 6:44 a.m. Atlantic Time while a 2.9-magnitude quake was felt at 8:31 a.m. Atlantic Time.
Claire Perry, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said both earthquakes were centered along the New Brunswick-Maine border about 10 kilometres northwest of Saint Andrews.
“Both occurred at about five kilometres depth so were quite well felt throughout the region,” Perry said in an interview.
Dozens of people on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border have already reported feeling one or both of the earthquakes.
Perry said minor earthquakes like this are quite common in this part of New Brunswick.
“We generally see quite low levels of seismicity, however, earthquakes of these types of magnitudes do occur, maybe one to two per year around the zone which we call the Northern Appalachians Seismic Zone,” she said.
The Northern Appalachians Seismic Zone extends from New Brunswick southward into New England and Boston.
No damage has been reported and Earthquakes Canada said none would be expected. According to Perry, earthquakes smaller than a 5.0-magnitude generally do not cause damage.
Perry encouraged people who felt the quakes to report it through the Earthquakes Canada website.
“Describe the shaking that you felt and your location,” she said. “That really helps us in improving our ground shaking models and also helps us improve data going into the National Building Code of Canada.”
Follow
