PLANETARY TREMORS: "Like A Bomb Going Off" - Earthquake "Swarm" Rattles Village In New Brunswick, Canada?!

A window was cracked at Lindsey Wilson's McAdam home during a recent earthquake. © CBC

February 11, 2016 - NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA - McAdam again hit by dozens of small quakes as seismologists search for answers

A swarm of small earthquakes is again rattling residents in the southwestern New Brunswick village of McAdam.

Officially, nine earthquakes hit the area on Monday night alone, coming on the heels of more than 23 temblors recorded since Feb. 1.

Mayor Frank Carroll estimates there were 20 to 30 small quakes on Monday night, with many of them not picked up by monitoring equipment located about 95 kilometres away in St. George. One of them registered 3.3 in magnitude.

No injuries have been reported and damage has been minor.

"Some people kind of describe it as a bomb going off," said Carroll.

"The community was really on edge on Monday," he said. "It was a horrific day in the world of earthquakes for us."

The village is giving all residents an "earthquake safety action plan," advising them on what to do if the quakes worsen.

Lindsey Wilson says a quake rattled her windows hard enough to break one of them.

"We've had some damage to our house. We've actually had a window get cracked on Sunday night," Wilson said.

A seismologist with Natural Resources Canada says it isn't known whether the small quakes are a precursor to a larger one.

"Magnitude 3.3 was quite a bit bigger than they had before," said John Adams. "But the pattern of activity is unpredictable."

Natural Resources Canada is sending additional seismology equipment to McAdam to enhance monitoring. It is expected to arrive by noon Thursday if road conditions allow.

Adams advises that if residents feel a quake lasting more than few seconds they should seek cover.

"Because we don't know what's going to happen, whether it will get bigger."

History of earthquakes

McAdam has been hit by similar swarms of earthquakes in the past. One in 2012 lasted 50 days, while another two years later lasted 10 days.

"It passed before in 2012 and we hope it's going to pass again," said Carroll.

Adams said there is probably a fault located under the village.

"There has to be a fault in the sense that an earthquake happens on a fault even if we can't see it," he said.

"There is an unknown fault under McAdam, as there is probably under most of New Brunswick somewhere."

"At some point it will be over, but we can't say it will be over for good," he said. - CBC.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Earthquake Swarm Strikes Off Vancouver Again - 8 Small Tremor Have Hit in Recent Weeks!

Experts say a "swarm" of small earthquakes off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island are part of the normal seismic activity in the area, and they could continue for several more days.

A swarm of earthquakes struck off Vancouver Island in recent weeks. (U.S. Geological Survey)

A 4.0 magnitude earthquake that struck just after midnight on Tuesday morning was the eighth small quake with a magnitude between 3.8 and 4.7 to strike the region since April 22.  Pacific Geoscience Centre Seismologist Gary Rogers said the activity is focused along a 20-kilometre stretch along an area called the Raveer Delwood Fault, located about 200 kilometres offshore.  "In the very thin crust that we have out there off our west coast of Vancouver Island, it often fractures in a series of small earthquakes, usually about this size being the maximum."  Rogers said more small earthquakes are expected in the area over the next week.  "They often go on for days.

There's been a lot of smaller ones, so eventually they'll wind down, but typically, what we've seen in the past is that most of these swarms last a few days to a week or so."  A similar but more powerful swarm that stuck the same area in August 2008 included a magnitude 5.2 quake.  Experts have been warning a major earthquake hits B.C. every 500 years, and the last one was in 1700. But they said the swarm of small earthquake activity does not indicate a larger earthquake is more likely in the short term.  The last significant quake to rattle the West Coast was a magnitude 6.5 tremor centered that struck about 50 kilometres off the west coast of the island in September of 2011, swaying high-rises as far away as Vancouver, Kelowna and Seattle. - CBC.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Moderate 4.1 Magnitude Quake Shakes Southern California - The Seismic Swarm Continues Along Canada's West Coast as a 4.7 Magnitude Tremor Strikes off Vancouver Island!

 A moderate earthquake has rattled Southern California.  The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 4.1 quake struck 8:07 a.m. Saturday.

It was centered along the San Andreas Fault about two miles northwest of Devore, in San Bernardino County.  Buildings swayed in downtown Los Angeles, about 60 miles to the west.  City News Service reports slight damage was reported by homeowners in Rancho Cucamonga, just west of the epicenter.  The U.S. Geological Survey says a 2.0 aftershock hit about a half mile away about two minutes later. - FOX News.

WATCH: Puzzling quake swarm along the San Andreas Fault.

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck about 200 kilometres west of Vancouver Island on Friday morning but there were no reports of it being felt by island residents.

This was the largest quake in a small swarm of earthquakes off the coast of Vancouver. The quake struck around 1:36 a.m. PT, according to the Natural Resources Canada. Earthquakes of that size are common in the area and experts say they do not indicate a large earthquake is more likely. The U.S. Geological Service reported three quakes of similar magnitude in the area over the past five days, and there have been several more reported in recent months. - CBC News.

WATCH: New Brunswick town in Canada plagued by mysterious quake swarm.

PLANETARY TREMORS: New Brunswick Town Plagued for Weeks by Quake Swarm – Over 35 Tremors in 5 Weeks; No One Knows Why?!

Springtime in McAdam, a tiny village in southwestern New Brunswick not far from the Maine border, is like springtime in most other parts of Canada. Locals chatter about the NHL playoffs, the garden they are planting, the grass that needs to be cut, the fish they can’t wait to catch and the cottage they can’t wait to get to, once the warm weather really settles in.  Lately, however, an interloper has elbowed its way into the community’s daily dialogue. Pushing aside the playoffs. Pushing its way to the very top of the talking points.  “Everybody is talking about the earthquakes,” says David Blair, a retired science teacher and lifetime McAdam resident from his home on Old Harvey Road, just east of downtown.

McAdam, New Brunswick, has been struck by over 35 minor tremours —
called an “earthquake swarm” — in the past five weeks.

“You’ll be out and about and people will say, ‘Did you feel the one last night, or did you feel the one this morning? Some people will say yes, others might say no. It really depends on what you are doing.’  “If you are quiet at home and there is not a lot of noise you are probably going to feel or hear it. But if you are banging around, or if the grandkids are banging around, you sometimes won’t know if it’s the kids — or if it was an earthquake — they are about the same magnitude, I guess.”  Residents were initially rattled awake at 1:40 a.m. on March 10 by a 2.4-magnitude earthquake that was followed three minutes later by a 1.4-magnitude aftershock. People described hearing what sounded like an explosion. Pictures fell off walls. Window panes rattled. Floorboards creaked and groaned. Some houses even shook, while locals, initially, felt a surge of panic that eased, somewhat, by morning with the realization that a bomb had not gone off but a small earthquake had.  Three days later: two more earthquakes. And in the five weeks since there have been 35 additional shakes, a steady tide of minor tremours that is a popular topic of conversation among villagers and a seismic anomaly that scientists can’t entirely explain.  “What is happening in McAdam is something called an earthquake swarm,” says Stephen Halchuk, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada. “It is a series of earthquakes, which is rare. But what is particularly unusual about what is happening in McAdam is that it is basically happening directly beneath the village — and at a depth of less than one kilometre.  “When these earthquake swarms occur they are typically in a remote area where nobody feels them.”  Mr. Halchuk can’t say how long the earthquakes will continue for, or if a big one, capable of causing serious property damage and endangering lives, could be lurking among all the little ones.  “We can never say never,” he says. “I wouldn’t rule out a very large event occurring but, typically, in situations like this, the magnitude of the earthquakes is modest and doesn’t increase.”

Researchers from the University of New Brunswick addressed community members at an atypical town hall meeting Monday night, answering questions and assuaging lingering fears. One working theory they have to explain the quakes is an early spring thaw. A rapid change in groundwater levels could, perhaps, be causing the underlying rocks to slip and stress, unleashing the multiple shocks. Moodus, Connecticut, is another tiny town with an earthquake problem, one dating back hundreds of years and which, today, is the basis of the local high school’s team name: The Noises. The noises in McAdam, meanwhile, have been described by the locals as a loud “bang,” a “boom,” “like dynamite being blown up,” and “a loud thud, like somebody falling out of bed.”  Natural Resources and UNB have installed three seismographs in the village to monitor the situation and to flesh out their working hypotheses. One of the machines is in David Blair’s basement.  “They are not paying me for it,” he says, laughing. “It’s just volunteer. The government doesn’t have any money except to pay its MPs and MLAs.”  Connie Klein is the village clerk. She doesn’t really like talking to the media, or the academics, because she doesn’t really know what to say. But, when she does talk, she explains how the quakes, to her, have become another noise — in her otherwise tranquil village — a sharp “bang” as though someone were upstairs in her house and dropped an encyclopedia on the floor while she was downstairs washing the dishes.  “You might jump for a second,” she says.  But then you get on with your day.  And Tuesday, in McAdam, was one for the ages. The sun was blasting hot and talk of the unusual April weather — and not whether the Earth was about to split open and swallow the place whole — was on everybody’s lips.  “It has been really nice here,” Ms. Klein says. “In fact, it’s actually too hot.” - National Post.

WATCH: McAdam plagued by earthquake swarm.