Rare 4.5-magnitude earthquake shakes Fort Good Hope — even if no one felt it
CBC News | Posted: March 22, 2019 9:36 PM | Last Updated: March 22, 2019
Dogs were 'agitated' in the area twice on Thursday, says resident Edna Tobac
There was a rare 4.5-magnitude earthquake near Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., on Thursday.
The quake hit the area at around 10:33 a.m., followed by an aftershock around 2:12 p.m.
Edna Tobac, who lives in Fort Good Hope, says she didn't feel it herself, but the dogs were riled up on Thursday morning and afternoon.
"There was some dogs in the community, like I noticed quite a few of them were barking and like agitated because well they would sense it," she said.
Tobac experienced a big earthquake before, when she was visiting Anchorage, Alaska. This one was quite different, she said but surprising nonetheless.
In that immediate area we don't see a huge number of earthquakes. - John Cassidy, earthquake seismologist
"It's quite significant. I experienced 5.5 I believe and like, you know, that literally shook the chair I was sitting in," she laughed.
John Cassidy, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada based in Victoria, said the earthquake was about 95 kilometres from Fort Good Hope.
"In that immediate area we don't see a huge number of earthquakes," Cassidy said, but he added that it's not unheard of.
"But they tend to be years apart, not days or months. So it's a relatively rare event."
- From 2011 | 5.4 magnitude quake hits western N.W.T
He said to the west, the Richardson Mountains near the Yukon/Northwest Territories border see a lot of activity, as well as to the southwest in the Mackenzie Mountains, which he called a "seismic hotspot" in Canada.
Dogs may have felt it
Though Cassidy hasn't had any reports of the earthquake being felt, he said a 4.5 is strong enough to feel a good shake near the epicentre.
"[It] isn't big enough to cause any sort of damage to a building or to structures, but you know it would certainly be felt and you would feel shaking for maybe five five seconds or 10 seconds," he said.
Cassidy said if a person, or dog, were lying or sitting still and quietly, they might also feel it.
"If a dog was lying on the floor, you know there is a chance that they would detect these waves that humans might not notice if they're moving around or doing something."