Vibrations from Montana quake shake things up
City resident in 26th floor apartment felt ‘a little rocking’ just after midnight
Vibrations from a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Montana at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning may have made it all the way to Saskatchewan, as at least 20 “Did you feel it?” reports from the province have been filed with the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Brendan Davidowich said he realized his 26th floor apartment in the central core was shaking at about 12:36 a.m. Thursday morning when the blinds in his spare room started to bang against the wall, something he said only happens during a storm.
Having spent some time in Japan, Davidowich knew the sensation was one he’s felt before. He quickly checked his phone to see where the quake was located, and saw reports of the incident in Montana.
“It kind of threw me off and I didn’t expect that kind of shaking to happen here,” he said. “It wasn’t anything major, it was just kind of like a little rocking, but it’s enough you can feel it.”
The earthquake, which was centred 11 kilometres southeast of Lincoln, Mont., was referred to as “one heck of a shaker,” in a post on the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Rescue Facebook’s page.
However, by the time the vibrations hit Saskatchewan they had dissipated, as Davidowich said the shaking failed to wake his girlfriend.
“It’s … not what you’d expect to feel in Saskatchewan,” he said. “It’s pretty neat that I was actually awake.”
He wasn’t alone in feeling the vibrations.
The USGS recorded six “Did you feel it?” reports from Saskatoon alongside multiple Saskatchewan reports from Maple Creek, Swift Current and Eston.
Camille Brillon, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said that despite the fact the number of people submitting reports was low, it appears “a handful of people did feel a slight shake at the time of this earthquake,” noting some communities in the U.S. even further away from the epicentre also reported feeling vibrations.
“A very small number of people felt it in Saskatchewan and these were people who were likely awake and alert and enough to notice something — it wouldn’t have woken you up,” she said. “It wouldn’t have rattled anything off the shelf. It probably would have just been a bump.”
She said that, while reports filed with the USGS indicate the earthquake was felt in the province, there’s been no reports filed from Saskatchewan with Natural Resources Canada.
Don Gendzwill a retired earthquake expert and professor emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan, said it’s likely that Davidowich felt what are known as “surface waves” from the Montana quake, which tend to travel slower than what’s known as “bottom waves.”
“From Montana, it may take a couple of minutes to get here, and they would affect people in tall buildings,” he said. “People on the ground level wouldn’t feel it, but it would create a swaying sensation in a tall building.”
Natural Resources Canada also posted on its website that people in southern Alberta and British Columbia may have felt shaking as a result of the earthquake, but indicated it’s received “no reports of damage at this time.”