McBride residents feel 4.7 magnitude earthquake
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
A 4.7 magnitude earthquake located about 62 kilometres northeast of Grande Cache, Alberta, was felt in McBride and Dunster, B.C., residents say. According to Earthquakes Canada, the earthquake is suspected to be the result of industry-related activity.
Earthquakes between 3.5 and 5.4 on the magnitude scale are large enough to be felt, but rarely cause damage, Earthquakes Canada says.
McBride resident Tanisha Teering said she was sitting on the couch when she and her son felt the house begin to shake.
“I looked over and all my plants were swinging, their little leaves were vibrating… there were little ripples on the top of my coffee,” she told The Goat.
Teering yelled over the noise of clanging dishes and rattling shelves to see if her son was experiencing the same thing in the other room, and he was.
“It was just a crazy feeling,” Teering said. “This is the third one I’ve felt in the last 12 months. I was sitting at my desk earlier this year and felt it come through, but that one was more like waves. This one was like if there had been a grader in the alley shaking the house, working, digging up the ground, that’s what it felt like.”
Natural Resources Canada earthquake seismologist Taimi Mulder told The Goat a wide-reaching range of people could feel this morning’s earthquake – from Worsley, Alberta all the way to Prince George, B.C.
There have been no reports of damage due to the earthquake, according to Mulder – just a few dangling light fixtures and framed pictures knocked askew. Damage typically occurs around magnitudes of 5 or 5.5, she added.
The Alberta Energy Regulator believes the earthquake may have been induced by industrial activity, Mulder said. Earthquakes Canada is tasked with collecting data on earthquakes’ strength and damage, not investigating industrial causes, according to her. The Alberta Energy Regulator will be responsible for any further investigation into potential industrial causes, she added.
The earthquake was fairly unique in how wide of a region it effected, Mulder said.
“It was actually quite widely felt, interestingly enough, to the north and west of the earthquake and to the south and the east of the earthquake, which is quite interesting because Grande Cache itself did not experience quite as much shaking,” Mulder said. “There weren’t as many people [in Grande Cache] as one might expect that reported feeling the earthquake.”
This story was updated at 4:05 p.m. on February 20th to include comments from Taimi Mulder, earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada.
