We've just had an earthquake here in Ottawa

[Canuckistanian]

I haven't heard anything on the news yet, but our whole bulding was shaking. I thought I was imagining something, but a colleague at the other end of the building said the same thing.

Wow, my first earthquake.

[Benfea]

1. Heh.

I lived in Japan for 8 years, so I barely even notice Earthquakes unless something falls to the floor. ;)

[Canuckistanian]

2. People from California will probably laugh at this

But this is very rare in this part of the world.

[Benfea]

3. True. It's quite a shock if you're not used to it. -NT

[XemaSab]

7. Even in California we don't get quakes that often

I've felt maybe one a year or so.

A 4.0 is an okay quake. Not huge, but not tiny either. :D

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. You sure?

There's nothing on the USGS site. :shrug:

[marzipanni]

5. You're right

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/usjpad.php

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. Yup — I just checked again

a minute before I came back here. Took 'em awhile to post it.

4.5 — nothin' to sneeze at, even for a Kollyforniyan.

[marzipanni]

9. Interesting, they upgraded the magnitude

It was posted at 4.0 when I put that link on DU.

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. That happens a lot

after further review of the data. Upgrades and downgrades are common. The Loma Prieta quake in 1989 started as a 7.1 or 7.2, then went to 7.0 and finally to 6.9.

[marzipanni]

14. I was in Davis for that one...

tall palm trees swayed, the weight of a transformer made a telephone pole dance.
Were you in the area affected by the Loma Prieta quake?

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. Yeah, in Salinas

But it's on some pretty solid ground, so there wasn't much structural damage. We were without power and water for about a day and a half, but that was the worst of it. But, god, did it shake.

It was, however, the final blow to the old Cominos Hotel downtown, where John Steinbeck used to drink. It proved the excuse needed to tear it down.

[Lisa]

6. do you think it's tectonic, or isostatic rebound?

I know that the quakes we get further to the south and east (in Hamilton or Toronto, say) tend to be due to the crust popping back into shape now that it realizes the glaciers really have gone. (I was actually sitting in a geology class at McMaster when we felt a little tremor, a couple of decades back ... the prof said, "best visual aid ever", then kept on lecturing.)

But Ottawa seems to be closer to the real action ... isn't the Ottawa Valley a graben (or whatever they call a valley that's been made by faulting). Mount Royal is of volcanic origin, for sure.

[u4ic]

10. I felt one in Toronto

It was very early one morning (around 5 am), circa 1987-88. Everything rattled for a few seconds, then settled down.

I went to work and joked we must have had an earthquake. The news later reported we did.

[havocmom]

12. Yep, you got a 4.2 shake. Is that really rear there?

Here's a cool site for earthquake reports
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

[havocmom]

13. There was one (also 4.2) off coast of Oregon

Hmm, is Canada trying to break away from the longest unguarded border? ;)

Wouldn't blame you guys for wanting to distance yourselves from the US... we seem to be a bit off the sanity scale right now.

[leftofthedial]

15. that wasn't an earthquake

America just farted