Earthquake

So I'm working from home today because the University is closing at 6 pm. They are going to lock everyone out, so I figured why fight traffic only to get kicked out at 6 pm? It figures though... there's hardly ever noticeable earthquakes in Toronto and on the random Wednesday I'm not actually in the office the entire house shook for a good portion of a minute with a tangible coda. The closet door opened and a few things even fell off the shelf. I was not seeing anything on the USGS page (until just now) and the Earthquakes Canada page was down altogether (possibly because they run everything from Ottawa in typical government fashion).

It's now up:
a magnitude 5.5 event near the Ontario-Québec border, 61 km north of Ottawa
* Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 17:41:41 UTC
* Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 01:41:41 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 45.866°N, 75.457°W

That's a fairly large event and early felt reports came from Ottawa, Toronto and as far as Buffalo.

If you felt the event, you should fill in a felt report. By doing so you can help with earthquake safety and building codes. It is a straightforward thing to record ground shaking, but the specific effects in different areas can be greatly effected by local ground conditions. The Ottawa Valley, believe it or not, has some of the highest earthquake hazard in Canada.

You can fill in a felt repot with the USGS. Canadians should fill in felt reports with the GSC... I'll post a link as soon the Earthquakes Canada site is back up.

Edit: Earthquakes Canada felt report here

Interestingly, Minouette did not freak out like she did when she experienced a magnitude 3.9 event within 10 km of the epicenter.