Earthquake shakes homes in New Brunswicvck

GRAND BAY-WESTFIELD, N.B. — A minor earthquake rattled windows and knocked dishes off shelves in a small community in southern New Brunswick on Thursday.

Federal officials say the 3.8magnitude quake was recorded at 9:49 a.m., its epicentre in the community of Grand Bay-Westfield, about two kilometres underground and about 25 kilometres north of Saint John.

Earthquakes Canada, a branch of the Natural Resources Department, says local residents had filed more than 250 online reports about the seismic activity by early afternoon.

Nick Ackerley, a seismologist with Earthquakes Canada, said the epicentre of the quake was relatively shallow, which is why so many people felt the rumbling.

He said earthquakes at this magnitude typically cause little damage, unless they are close to a heavily populated area.

“Even in that case, we expect very light damage,” he said.

“But we know that it was widely felt.”

In 1982, New Brunswick experienced its most powerful earthquake on record, a 5.7-magnitude shaker in the Miramichi region that was 100 times more powerful than the one recorded on Thursday.

“But it only caused light damage because there were very few people living close to the epicentre,” Ackerley said.

The latest quake could have been the result of intraplate tectonics, which refers to the fact that all of Eastern Canada is in the middle of one tectonic plate know as the North American Plate, he said.