Cornwall and area residents feel earthquake tremor

At 1:36 p.m., a 4.3 magnitude earthquake was measured 5 kilometers south east of Hawkesbury, Ontario.

PHOTO CREDIT - Natural Resources Canada

Cornwall - Mar. 16, 2011 - Many Cornwall and area residents felt the effects of an earthquake this afternoon. At 13:36:55 local time a 4.3 magnitude earthquake was measured 5 kilometers south east of Hawkesbury, Ontario.

Last summer, area residents also felt small tremors as a result of an earthquake. On June 23, 2010 at 13:41:41 local time a 5.0 magnitude was measured 10 kilometers southeast of Val-des-Bois, Quebec. Ironically, both earthquakes occurred at similar times around 1:30 pm and both happened on a Wednesday.

Natural Resources Canada is reporting the following on their website:

The earthquake of March 16, 2011 occurred in the western Quebec seismic zone. On average, we record 100-150 mostly small earthquakes in the region every year. Magnitude 4 events occur on average once every 2-3 years in this region. This event (mN 4.3) is roughly 1/10 the size of the June 23, 2010 Val-des-Bois earthquake (Mw5.0) and 75 km to the southeast. This earthquake was widely felt between Ottawa and Montreal. No significant damage has been reported and none would be expected for an event of this size.

For more information, visit the Natural Resources website.