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: Weather Anomalies - Rare Earthquake Shakes Residents Of Maine, United States?! [MAPS + TECTONIC SUMMARY]

USGS earthquake location.

February 3, 2016 - MAINE, UNITED STATES - At 6:56 a.m., residents on the east coast of Maine got a wake up call from nature.

A magnitude 3.3 earthquake hit 5 miles to the northeast of Eastport's shore, but residents thought it felt a lot closer than that.

Luckily, there wasn't much damage, but it gave people a good rattle.

The earthquake was detected coming from the waters between Maine and Canada's coasts. Residents from Charlotte and Perry and as far as Machias reported they heard and felt it.

Some people experienced minor damage like falling household objects up to 10 miles from the center of the quake.

USGS shakemap intensity.

Early risers even saw waves coming from the epicenter in the water.

A magnitude 3.3 earthquake is still considered a minor one, but to some who lived close by, it was anything but.

"The only thing I could think of was the house blowing up," said one Eastport resident.

"There were some things falling off the shelves and it sounded like the house was going to crack in half," said another Eastport resident.

A worker on the pier said, "a short time later was a big wave rolling in. Just one rogue wave."

This earthquake was small but was enough to get the attention of Eastport residents this morning.

As an earth science instructor at UMaine said, a 3.3 earthquake doesn't cause much damage, and it could've been a lot worse.

Alice Kelly, PH.D., an instructor of earth and climate studies at UMaine, says it's unusual to see seismic activity in this area.

"For people who experience earthquakes frequently, this is actually rather small. China rattles, things may fall of a shelf. The most active part of the North American plate that's closest to us is in the mid-Atlantic so earthquakes here are very rare," said Kelly.

There have not been any reports of aftershocks. - WCSH.

Earthquakes in the Stable Continental Region

Natural Occurring Earthquake Activity
Most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains has infrequent earthquakes. Here and there earthquakes are more numerous, for example in the New Madrid seismic zone centered on southeastern Missouri, in the Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic zone of eastern Quebec, in New England, in the New York - Philadelphia - Wilmington urban corridor, and elsewhere. However, most of the enormous region from the Rockies to the Atlantic can go years without an earthquake large enough to be felt, and several U.S. states have never reported a damaging earthquake.

Earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains, although less frequent than in the West, are typically felt over a much broader region than earthquakes of similar magnitude in the west. East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area more than ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast. It would not be unusual for a magnitude 4.0 earthquake in eastern or central North America to be felt by a significant percentage of the population in many communities more than 100 km (60 mi) from its source. A magnitude 5.5 earthquake in eastern or central North America might be felt by much of the population out to more than 500 km (300 mi) from its source. Earthquakes east of the Rockies that are centered in populated areas and large enough to cause damage are, similarly, likely to cause damage out to greater distances than earthquakes of the same magnitude centered in western North America.

Most earthquakes in North America east of the Rockies occur as faulting within bedrock, usually miles deep. Few earthquakes east of the Rockies, however, have been definitely linked to mapped geologic faults, in contrast to the situation at plate boundaries such as California's San Andreas fault system, where scientists can commonly use geologic evidence to identify a fault that has produced a large earthquake and that is likely to produce large future earthquakes. Scientists who study eastern and central North America earthquakes often work from the hypothesis that modern earthquakes occur as the result of slip on preexisting faults that were formed in earlier geologic eras and that have been reactivated under the current stress conditions. The bedrock of Eastern North America is, however, laced with faults that were active in earlier geologic eras, and few of these faults are known to have been active in the current geologic era. In most areas east of the Rockies, the likelihood of future damaging earthquakes is currently estimated from the frequencies and sizes of instrumentally recorded earthquakes or earthquakes documented in historical records.
Induced Seismicity

As is the case elsewhere in the world, there is evidence that some central and eastern North America earthquakes have been triggered or caused by human activities that have altered the stress conditions in earth's crust sufficiently to induce faulting. Activities that have induced felt earthquakes in some geologic environments have included impoundment of water behind dams, injection of fluid into the earth's crust, extraction of fluid or gas, and removal of rock in mining or quarrying operations. In much of eastern and central North America, the number of earthquakes suspected of having been induced is much smaller than the number of natural earthquakes, but in some regions, such as the south-central states of the U.S., a significant majority of recent earthquakes are thought by many seismologists to have been human-induced. Even within areas with many human-induced earthquakes, however, the activity that seems to induce seismicity at one location may be taking place at many other locations without inducing felt earthquakes. In addition, regions with frequent induced earthquakes may also be subject to damaging earthquakes that would have occurred independently of human activity. Making a strong scientific case for a causative link between a particular human activity and a particular sequence of earthquakes typically involves special studies devoted specifically to the question. Such investigations usually address the process by which the suspected triggering activity might have significantly altered stresses in the bedrock at the earthquake source, and they commonly address the ways in which the characteristics of the suspected human-triggered earthquakes differ from the characteristics of natural earthquakes in the region.

For More Information
Additional earthquake information for Maine

- USGS.

ICE AGE NOW: Monster Snowfall In Prince Edward Island, Canada - Cars And Streets COMPLETELY BURIED!

OMGosh!!!! - this is Summerside PEI this morning!! photo from CBC New Brunswick . Twitter: Kathryn Reed-Garrett

February 20, 2015 - PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, CANADA - Snow always makes driving more difficult, but in Prince Edward Island, so much of it has fallen many people can't even find their cars.

A winter storm has dropped almost a metre of snow in the past few days, and it's often hard to see where the road ends and the ditch begins. On some rural roads, snowbanks are piled three times higher than the people standing next to them.

You just know there is an awesome school with terrific liberal arts programs buried under all that snow in #PEI.  Twitter: R. A. Whipple

Toronto it could be worst RT @Waggable1 10.5 hours on the snowblower to get to my car! #pei #snow. Twitter:  Frankie Flowers

“Full photo of a friend's granddaughter standing on road just outside #kensington #pei #blizzard2015 pic.twitter.com/44YGwX4Qfj”  Twitter:  Susan Gorham

This is a highway on #PEI. Absurd amount of snow.
RT @RCMPPEITraffic: Snow crews have made it to Route 20 ParkCorner. 
Twitter:  Ben Wright

This is a highway on #PEI. Absurd amount of snow.
RT @RCMPPEITraffic: Snow crews have made it to Route 20 ParkCorner. 
Twitter:  Ben Wright

This buried car is typical of what I'm seeing today in rural #PEI . Snow is wind-blown and hard packed.  Twitter:  Brian Higgins

Thats a car at the end of a long snow tunnel! MT @globalalexh
Here's the photo fr #PEI were were just talking about
Twitter:  Energy1035 90s & NOW

Inside my car. Not on the hood #snow #pei   Twitter: Chris*

Before the plows came! So much snow in #Charlottetown #PEI!!! #snow #instawinter #canada #frozen by kidsequipped  
Twitter: Insta Tag Canada

Massive snow drifts all across PEI.   Twitter: Bill Jameson

Buried! #PEI. #gentleisland #princeedwardisland.   Twitter: rcdrost

Snow canyon. Horne Cross Road #PEI is about two metres underneath this snowdrift. Yes, it's open to traffic.  Twitter: Brian Higgins

That's a lot of snow. RT @pei_stormchaser: Very common sight on rural roads across PEI. Roads down to one lane.  Twitter: PrimeChoiceAutoParts

The Journal Pioneer reported that some residents dug an eight-metre-long tunnel to try to find their car under white stuff piled two storeys high. The island itself is nearly invisible when viewed from space, as satellite images show.



  - The Globe and Mail.

ICE AGE NOW: New Brunswick Resident Shares Viral Video Of Insane Snowfall - Tries To Dig Himself Out Of A "9-FOOT" Snow Bank Built-Up In Front Of His Door!

A man walks near a snow plow after a winter storm hit Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island February 16, 2015. Canadian media
reported that 80 cm (2.6 feet) of snow hit the province, breaking a single storm record.   © Reuters/Nathan Rochford

February 18, 2015 - NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA - One New Brunswick man made it his mission to prove the East Coast has it worst than the rest of the country by uploading a YouTube video documenting just how much snow they've received.

It worked. You win, East Coast. We concede.

Kevin McGrath, a resident of Dieppe, probably wasn't expecting his home video showing off the amount of snow congregating around his house to hit almost 84,000 views on YouTube in two days but that's precisely what happened.


WATCH: Stormageddon 2015 in New Brunswick.

In the video, McGrath starts off by showing the "9-foot" snow bank that has built up in front of his door. He tries to dig his way out of it, but after about 30 seconds admits defeat and moves to another potential exit point.

In the garage, the situation is a little less dire, but not by much. McGrath is able to see the top half of his car and figures he and his wife can jump and squeeze their way out of the house.

With a perfect amount of dad jokes and cussing thrown in for a soundtrack, the video is a terrifying hoot. - Toronto Sun.

ICE AGE NOW: New Brunswick Braces For FOURTH SNOW STORM In Just ONE WEEK - State Of Emergency Declared In Saint John!

© Dan Culberson for The Globe and Mail

February 5, 2015 - NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA - New Brunswick is bracing for another blast of snow after being battered by a third storm in less than a week.

A local state of emergency has been declared in the southern peninsula of Saint John, whose streets are piled high with snow. Environment Canada says more snow is expected to begin Wednesday night in some areas of New Brunswick and will continue well into Thursday.

Snow vs. Snow: How high is it?

So far this year, Saint John has seen more than 160 centimetres of snow. Normally, Saint John has 15 to 20 centimetres accumlated at this time of year. Environment Canada meteorologist Claude Cote said Wednesday night's incoming system could bring 15 to 25 more centimetres to the city.

For some perspective on how much snow that is: Here's how Saint John's recent snowfall compares with one of the city's most famous sons, actor Donald Sutherland. Recently renowned for playing President Coriolanus Snow in the Hunger Games film franchise, Mr. Sutherland is 6-foot-4, yet his hometown's piles of snow would nearly bury him.

Saint John's snowfall is also formidable when compared with the rest of Canada, parts of which saw less snow in a month than Atlantic Canada has seen in three days.

Atlantic Canada's snowy week

Saint John

Mayor Mel Norton says it was the first time in almost three decades that the city declared a state of emergency, which allows the city to ban on-street parking.

© Dan Culberson for The Globe and Mail

He says the state of emergency will be in effect for up to a week in the city's southern peninsula. - The Globe and Mail.

FIRE IN THE SKY: Cosmic Coincidence - Second Fireball Shoots Over Nova Scotia, Canada In Just 24 Hours?!

March 20, 2014 - CANADA - CBC News reporter Phonse Jessome saw the colourful fireball in the northwestern sky above Fall River, 25 km north of Halifax, at 5:17 a.m. on Wednesday.

Wednesday's fireball, seen here as a streak of light in the top left corner, broke up into
three or four pieces before hitting the horizon. (Nova Scotia Webcams)

He said he saw it make a long, slow entry before breaking up into three or four pieces as it reached the horizon.

"I see shooting stars on this shift [all the time]," Jessome tweeted. "This was no shooting star. Not sure what's going on up there but it looks cool."

Stephen Lukas, who lives in the Hammonds Plains area of Halifax, said he saw the light during his morning run.

Seven seconds

"Just over my left shoulder I had a clear, unobstructed view of what looked to me like a large meteor, silvery white, it was definitely round, streaking through the sky," he said.

"I watched it for what I would guess was about seven seconds. It seemed longer, but that's probably as long as it was, and then it dipped into the horizon. And it did break up. I clearly saw it break up into smaller pieces."

Lukas said he sees shooting stars regularly, about once per month during his morning run, but this one was much bigger. In fact, he said he also saw another one on Monday.

"At first I thought it was a shooting star. I actually saw something similar on Monday morning on my morning run," he said.

Nigel Service, who was up early driving on Old Sambro Road in the Harrietsfield area south of Halifax, echoed Jessome's report.

Increasing in size

"All of a sudden, straight overhead, [there] was a small white light, which I didn't pay any attention to right away, because it almost looked like these new LED lights the city is putting up for street lighting," he said.

"I lost sight of it for about a millisecond and caught it again, and it was increasing in size and looked like it was moving toward mouth of [Halifax] Harbour."

Unlike Jessome, Service said he didn't see it break apart.

He was adamant the light he saw was not coming from the International Space Station, something he is familiar with. He said what he saw in the sky matched what was described by witnesses to Tuesday's fireball over the Maritimes.

On Tuesday, dozens of witnesses across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and near the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec reported seeing a burning, colourful flame that appeared in the sky about 5 a.m. AT.

Astronomer David Lane, director of the observatory at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, said based on the descriptions from witnesses, Tuesday's fireball "sounds very much like a fireball or an extra-bright meteor, meaning a chunk of rock from space that got in the way of Earth and burns up in the atmosphere." - CBC.


WATCH:  Meteor fireball over Nova Scotia.

 

FIRE IN THE SKY: "There Were Flames And Sparks And Then It Just Disappeared,... Not Like Any Meteor I've Ever Seen Before" - Bright Fireball Spotted In The Skies Over Atlantic Canada!

March 18, 2014 - CANADA - A bright meteor 'fireball' flashed across the sky over Eastern Canada today, lighting up the pre-dawn sky and possibly even causing a sonic boom as it burned through the atmosphere.

NovaScotiaWebcams.com caught this image of the fireball from Masstown, Nova Scotia.NovaScotiaWebcams

Witnesses from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and even Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula reported seeing a bright light in the sky early this morning. From all accounts, along with the northwest-facing image captured by the Masstown, N.S. webcam, it would seem that this particular fireball was travelling from south to north.

"On my way home from a fire call in Chateau Heights around 5 a.m. this morning, I witnessed what I thought was an airplane falling from the sky," Captain Dan Roy of the Keswick Valley Fire Department, just northwest of Fredericton, N.B., told CBC News. "There were flames and sparks and then it just disappeared. Not like any [meteor] I've ever seen before."

The fireball was apparently so bright that it woke some people from their sleep, like Rick Parker, who lives near Wentworth, N.S., about 25 kilometres north of Masstown.

"It started as a bright light. It lit up the sky enough to make me look out. I was just lying in bed, thinking about a fire in the wood stove, actually, and it lit up the whole sky. I mean it was very bright," Parker said, according to CBC News. "When I looked out the window, I just saw what appeared to be maybe the tail end of it, if you like, and it was almost like a meteor, but not the same."

Steve Betts, from Halifax spotted the fireball on his way to the airport, and paused to send out a Tweet about it:

@metrohalifax I just saw a object fall from the sky. Red flame tail, green in color, bright red flash and it disappeared .Meteorite?

- Steve Betts (@Bettszee) March 18, 2014

Cattle farmer George Hayes, who lives in Shigawake, QC, along the southeast shore of the Gaspé Peninsula, told CBC News that, at first, he thought a structure on his farm had fallen over.

"It sounded a lot like thunder, it was just about 4 o'clock [ET], and we're in calving season here, so any little noise we usually awaken, and this was a loud rumble of thunder," he said. "My wife and I both woke up. I went out to check on the animals and they had been disturbed, they all ran outside and they were as startled as we were."

Witnessing fireballs in the sky is always a spectacular and memorable event, but one of the negative side effects of these events is the paranoia that usually gets spread across the Internet - specifically about 'meteor outbursts' and even potential impacts.

The truth is that while these events are spectacular, they're anything but rare. In 2013, over 3,500 fireballs were reported, and that was only to the American Meteor Society (who only records ones that happen over the U.S. and Canada). They estimate that thousands burn through the atmosphere every day. It's just that most of them aren't seen, either because they happen during the da, when they're not bright enough to be noticed, or they happen far from where anyone can see them.

Undoubtedly, some will try to tie this to asteroid 2003 QQ47, which some sites have been erroneously saying is set to impact with the Earth on Friday. After all, NASA flagged this asteroid as possibly hitting us on March 21 and this fireball flashed through the sky from south to north. 2003 QQ47's orbit is tilted on a nearly 90 degree angle compared to Earth's orbit.

However, there's no connection between the two, and 2003 QQ47 isn't even a threat to us.

Although NASA did flag a potential impact on the date 2003 QQ47 was first discovered in August 2003, within less than a month they had completely ruled out the possibility and ruled out any impacts for nearly 200 years. Also, while this fireball went south to north, 2003 QQ47 is always travelling north to south relative to Earth when it crosses our orbit, and although Earth does cross 2003 QQ47's orbital path on Friday, March 21, 2003 QQ47 isn't going to be anywhere near that point in space at the time. It will be over 23 million kilometres above Earth's orbit. For comparison, that's roughly half the distance between the orbits of Earth and Venus, so it's really far away.

The closest approach 2003 QQ47 makes to us this year is actually on March 26, at the safe distance of over 19 million kilometres. You can actually watch this flyby on the web, thanks to sites like The Virtual Telescope, who will host a live show on the 26th. - Yahoo.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Train Derails In New Brunswick, Canada - Forces Evacuation Of About 150 People From Their Homes As Oil And Propane Burn Near Plaster Rock!

January 12, 2014 - CANADA - A train derailment spilled crude oil and propane into a sparsely populated part of Canada late Tuesday, sparking a blaze that forced about 150 people from their homes. No injuries or fatalities have been reported.

A large fireball rises from the site of a train derailment as officials used a controlled explosion to blast holes in
three tanker cars in Plaster Rock, N.B., Friday, Jan. 10, 2014. (Kevin Bissett / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Tuesday's train derailment is the latest in a series of oil-train accidents that have fueled a debate over how to safely transport crude oil and refined petroleum products. North American oil and gas production is rising faster than pipeline capacity, forcing bottlenecks at key energy transit points.

Companies have turned increasingly to rail to move oil from shale-rock formations in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, to markets at home and abroad.

The latest train derailment involved five cars containing crude oil and four containing propane destined for an Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick. The conductor and engineer were the only people on board, and neither was injured, according to Canadian National Railway spokesman Jim Feeny. Some cars caught fire and continued burning through Wednesday.

Fire burns on the horizon at the scene of a train derailment near Plaster Rock, New Brunswick on Wednesday.
The oil train derailment happened late Tuesday in a sparsely populated region of New Brunswick.

Tom Bateman/The Canadian Press/AP

"It is contained, but it is evolving," Claude Mongeau, the chief executive of CN Rail, said at a press conference Wednesday, adding it was too early to determine a cause.

Less than two weeks ago, an oil train carrying crude oil from the Bakken shale formation in derailed and exploded in North Dakota. No one was injured, but a nearby town was evacuated. In July, an oil train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, caused 47 fatalities.

The overwhelming majority of oil trains arrive at their destination safely, industry groups and officials say, but the recent string of events have prompted calls for more regulation. Sen. John Hoeven (R) of North Dakota is slated to meet with Department of Transportation officials Thursday to press for updated standards on oil train cars. In Canada, the federal government has required rail companies to notify municipalities when transporting dangerous goods through their communities."

In 2012, US trains transported  234,000 carloads of crude oil, up from 9,500 carloads in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). That increased to around 400,000 carloads in 2013. - CS Monitor.

MASS MAMMAL DIE-OFF: 4 Whales Found Dead On A Beach In New Brunswick, Canada?!

November 08, 2013 - CANADA - The carcasses of four whales found beached near Murray Beach Provincial Park near the Confederation Bridge this week have been buried in the sand.

The carcasses of four stranded pilot whales were buried six feet into the sand of a beach near
Murray Park Provincial Park. (Jessica Doria-Brown / CBC)

Fisheries and Oceans Canada officials and representatives from the University of Prince Edward Island examined the whales then the province was called in to dispose of the carcasses.

The four dead whales were buried in the sandy beach near the provincial park and that is raising questions from some.

David Crocker worries what will happen once the carcasses begin to decompose.

"I don't know how far it's buried in the sand, but as it decomposes over the winter and into the summer, it's going to attract a lot of seagulls, lot of flies, and it's gonna be really yucky on that beach because the mammals are not buried close enough to the embankment and deep enough," he said. "So it's gonna be a mess there when the summertime comes.

"If you don't smell it and you don't see it, I'll be very surprised," said Crocker.

Natural Resources officials say the carcasses were buried about two metres into the sand and that is the best way to dispose of them to protect the shoreline.

Crocker says beached whales are not a common sight in the area. He saw the carcasses before they were buried.

"There was a lot of damage around the head and lower part of the female's body," he said. "It looked like it possibly got hit by cruise ships or freighters in the area," he said.

"To see a mammal lying on the beach like that, it's sad."

Officials believe the damage to the whale carcasses was likely caused by waves brushing their bodies against nearby rocks.

The whales were two females and their offspring. Female long-finned pilot whales reach a length of 5.5 metres and weigh up to 1,300 kilograms.

Pilot whales are notorious for becoming stranded, especially in groups. There are a number of theories for the behaviour, including being confused by geomagnetic anomalies or following a sick member of their group who became stranded. - CBC.

WEATHER PHENOMENON: Sky Riddle - NASA Puzzled By Mysterious Green Patches That Appears To Cover The Sky?!

October 01, 2013 - SPACE - What is it? Some surely natural phenomenon has appeared in a video that, so far, has defied clear identification.

Thetime-lapse video below was made to record Perseid meteors above Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick, Canada late this summer.

The video, which ran from 9:30 pm August 11 to 3:00 am the next morning, records several meteor and satellite streaks beyond a picturesque background. Each image records a 30 second exposure.


WATCH:  Hopewell Rocks perseid meteor shower time lapse. 

At about 25 seconds into the video, however, an unusual patchy green glow appears to cover the sky. Possible explanations include airglow, aurora, lighting from an artificial or natural source, or something completely different.

This APOD is an attempt not only to solve this intriguing sky riddle, but to measure how powerful the APOD readership is as a citizen-science, collective-intelligence engine. - NASA.

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.

PLANETARY TREMORS: "Earthquake Swarm" Rattles New Brunswick Village - Resident Says It Sounded Like "A Bunch Of Dynamite Going Off"!

Residents in a small southwestern New Brunswick community may continue to feel minor earthquakes for several more days or even weeks, according to a Natural Resources Canada seismologist.

McAdam has been hit with four small earthquakes since Saturday in what is known as an “earthquake swarm. Certainly we are seeing what we are calling an earthquake swarm,” said John Adams, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada. “It is a number of earthquakes all of similar and small size all happening in the McAdam area.” The first earthquake happened at 1:40 a.m. on March 10, which had a magnitude of 2.4. Three minutes later, an aftershock with a magnitude of 1.4 was recorded. Two more earthquakes were recorded on Tuesday within roughly 20 minutes of each other. The small quakes had magnitudes of 2.0 and 1.9 respectively.

Adams said these small earthquakes could happen for several more days or even weeks. “We are absolutely certain that they are earthquakes that are underground. They are unpredictable. Of course you don’t know when the next one is going to happen,” he said. Earthquake swarms often happen in Ontario and Canada’s North, Adams said, but do not pose risks. These minor quakes are still unsettling for many people who live in the area. Gloria Nason said her house hasn’t sustained any damage and the only noticeable effect was a picture falling from the wall. But she said the events are scary. “We had two very large bursts of something, they are just like great big bangs like an explosion, very eerie, very scary,” she said. She said it felt like “a bunch of dynamite going off.” - CBC.

WATCH: Earthquake swarm in New Brunswick village.