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Plot of earthquake in Idaho

As if a pandemic wasn’t enough: earthquake hits close to home

April 3, 2020 — 

This week, a significant earthquake occurred relatively close  to Manitoba. In fact, it was one of the closest large earthquakes ever to occur so near to us.

The earthquake, centred on a fault line near Boise, Idaho, was physically felt in Alberta. And while in Manitoba we didn’t notice it rattling our dishes, a seismometer in Lac du Bonnet registered it perfectly.

Dr. Andrew Frederiksen, in geological sciences in the UM Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, says that the device operated by the Geological Survey of Canada showed the exact time the seismic waves traveling through the earth  reached Manitoba, causing the classic “squiggle” on a digital graph.

Frederiksen said that the seismograph in geological sciences at UM would have registered it too, but it requires regular changing of tracing paper and staff are now working from home so it is inaccessible.

Energy from the 6.5 magnitude earthquake took almost three and a half minutes to reach Manitoba.

Read a CTV story about the earthquake here.

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