5.5 magnitude earthquake rocks Ontario, Quebec

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake has hit Ontario, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, with tremors reportedly felt as far away as Montreal, Boston and Cleveland.

The epicenter of the quake was 38 miles, north of Ottawa, Canada.

The first tremor hit at 1:40 p.m. ET Wednesday.

Buildings in Toronto and Ottawa were evacuated in the minutes following the tremors.

Cracks also appeared both inside the Parliamentary Press Gallery building in Ottawa, and outside, AFP reported. Some people appeared shaken up, but unhurt.

“Earthquakes across Eastern Canada are definitely rare, but we do have them,” said Johanna Wagstaffe, a CBC seismologist and meteorologist.

“There are small fault lines along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario” and a “relatively active fault line that runs parallel to the St. Lawrence Valley,” she said just minutes after the quake.

The last major earthquake on that fault line measured 5.4 magnitude in 1998, she said.
Office workers shaken

Kathleen Sullivan was working on the eighth floor of an office in downtown Toronto when the quake hit.

“It was very peculiar because we could actually see the plants on our window shelf shaking. By the time we gathered in the hall and figured out it wasn’t our imagination, it stopped. But it was easily a minute of things shaking.”

The quake was felt as far south as Windsor, Ont., along the Canada-U.S. border.

“I was just laying in bed …. and the bed just started to move side to side … just gently,” said Darren Bonnici, who lives on the 10th floor of an apartment building along the city’s riverfront.

“Sort of, almost like a mother would rock a baby in a crib,” said Bonnici, adding the feeling lasted for about five seconds. “I thought right away it must have been an earthquake.”