Tara Jeffrey Corunna-area residents may have been a bit shaken up Thursday morning after a 2.5-magnitude seismic earthquake was confirmed for the area – the third in less than two years.
Tara Jeffrey
Corunna-area residents may have been a bit shaken up Thursday morning after a 2.5-magnitude seismic earthquake was confirmed for the area – the third in less than two years.
Chris Boucher, Seismic Analyst with Natural Resources Canada, confirmed the event happened around 7:20 a.m., about 3km NE of Corunna.
Online posts from a number of residents describe hearing a loud ‘bang’ as well as many reports of rumbling and shaking in their homes.
This marks the third earthquake in the area in less than two years.
Some speculated if the noise originated from NOVA Chemicals’ Corunna site, where increased flaring and noise is expected this week as the facility comes back online.
“Our employees also observed this event and we can confirm that after an investigation at each of our facilities, the noise/disruption was not related to our operations or any of NOVA’s facilities in the area,” spokesperson Julia Iacovella told The Journal.
Following the Nov. 2022 earthquake, Boucher told The Journal that events this size generally don’t cause any damage.
“At that magnitude, you’re talking about usually people will describe it as hearing a loud bang, followed by shaking,” he said at the time. “You’re definitely not looking at anything that would be damaging; that’s more something in the magnitude 5 range.”
Whether or not residents feel anything at all depends on factors like building structure, and local geology, he added.
“It’ll depend a lot on what kind of a building you’re in, so different frequencies will vibrate different buildings,” Boucher explained. “So depending on what building you’re in, the height of the building you’re in…it can depend even just on the ground you’re on.
“For example, if you have really soft soil that’s overlying a really hard bedrock, some of the waves could get amplified,” he added. “If you’re standing on really hard rock, you might not feel it as much as someone who is standing on soft soil.
“I would say this is an area where you don’t generally see earthquakes very often, but they’re not unheard of,” he said, adding that residents are encouraged to report their experiences to Earthquakes Canada’s website.
“And if you do feel an earthquake, it’s important to remember those three steps,” he added, “to drop, cover and hold on.”
