Canada Earthquake 2010: Toronto, Ottawa Report Ground Shaking (VIDEO)

A Canada earthquake shook Toronto and Ottawa at approximately 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time today, June 23, 2010. The USGS reports the quake had a magnitude of 5.0.

Numerous reports flooded Twitter, including from the National Post in Toronto, which tweeted about heavy shaking to its building about 30 seconds after similar reports from Ottawa.

We're mapping reader reports of where the quake was felt as we receive them. Check out our map here. And let us know if you felt it in your area at [e-mail]! Thanks to all the readers that have already written in.

Scroll down for video of the quake.

The Globe and Mail is reporting on its mobile site that there are numerous reports of "unusual ground shaking in various parts of Ontario," as well as Buffalo, N.Y.

The quake was also felt by some as far away as Boston, Cleveland and Chicago.

A reader Andrew Whitaker emailed in from Michigan, "I'm working at university of michigan hospital currently in ann arbor michigan and we experienced two 10 second intervals of light shaking that is being reported as part of the earthquake in canada."

Another reader Sharon Shaw said she felt the quake from Huntington, West Virginia, near the Ohio and Kentucky border, while reader Crystal Buckley said she felt tremors at approximately 2:05 p.m. in Bath, N.Y.

Reader Jamie Malone wrote in to say "felt it in pittsburgh! 4th floor office building."

And here's a reader report from Canada, courtesy of Kahlya Ohlhoff: "I am in Hamilton ON and felt the quake. It lasted almost a minute, being on the third floor, we evacuated the building. It was pretty intense, the flowers and computer monitors were shaking enough to make our hands mimic the movement."

We've also received reports from readers that the quake was felt in Cincinnati; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Milwaukee; East Hartford, CT; Staten Island; Mt. Laurel, NJ; and Pittsburgh.

Here's some great video, courtesy of Fox 40 Sacramento via CBC, of a TV studio shaking as the quake hits.

More news about how the earthquake affected the New York area here.

Did you experience the quake? Let us know at [e-mail]!

Comments

[angry expat]

08:22 AM on 06/26/2010

Hmm...an earthquake right before the G20? HAARP anyone?

PS: Only a Canadian would exit a dangerous situation so slowly and calmly, apologizing in the process. Hahaha!!!

[ProFormaArtista]

07:00 PM on 06/26/2010

Nibiru is Wormwood is PlanetX is the 12th Planet.

[StephenJK]

07:23 AM on 06/26/2010

I'm starting to wonder if these quakes (in Chicago, here) are related in any way to the extraction of oil from the GOMEX.

[lalin vong]

05:34 AM on 06/26/2010

Sorry to heart that there is an earthquake in Canada. I hope all the disasters have gone from this world.... really concern about environment issue

[Adam Appel]

01:38 AM on 06/26/2010

And? We had a 5.1 two nights ago. It wern't no thing.

[Anti-Panoptic]

10:45 PM on 06/25/2010

"Its theee end of the world as we know it/ And I feel fiiiiiine"- R.E.M

[mcmutter]

08:58 AM on 06/26/2010

Rapture Day is next Thursday .... no paper money accepted .... bring GOLD you can order it thru Glenn Beck ......

[Slapmewhenitsover]

10:42 PM on 06/25/2010

More melodrama over nothing...thanks for your empty comments.

[Das Hirschenhofer 11]

12:23 PM on 06/26/2010

"What is...uh...C A T...spelled dog?

[Das Hirschenhofer 11]

12:24 PM on 06/26/2010

Don't you hate when you try to make a smart a $ $ remark...you mess it all up with a typo.."if".

[Slapmewhenitsover]

05:53 PM on 06/26/2010

I think you replied to the wrong post...in your attempt to correct a spelling mistake...you do see the problem with this don't you?
In your case, double FAIL...at least.

[naan]

09:22 PM on 06/25/2010

A group of us were outside in St Sauveur QC about 50 miles east of epicentre. I was in bare feet when the quake started. At first we thought it was a big truck, then a big plane, then omg it's an earthquake. It got very loud as it rumbled and roared and the ground shook. I could feel the vibrations rippling deep beneath my feet and the thought of the earth opening and swallowing us all did cross my mind. It went on for a while. Thrilling and no damage. I've felt many in the past but this was definitely the loudest and strongest.

[YABookShelf]

04:45 PM on 06/25/2010

Did anyone watch the video? It was actually a little funny to me. :)

[hollybork]

01:21 PM on 06/25/2010

Earth quakes scare me more than anything. More than spiders & falling trees, those everyday scary things (setting the frying pan on fire!). A lot more than asteroids, methane gas bubble explosions, mega volcanoes or terrorist atom bombs in suitcases, all of which seem to me improbable to the point of being beneath consideration.

Earthquakes can be experienced before they are appreciated. I felt a few, and at first it is like a tickle, like something you capture out of the corner of your eye but cannot name. Wham!

I was born in California, and earthquake fear runs deep in me. Earthquakes are scarry beyond bad dreams, beyond a sense of decorum or control, because the earth is so great. There is absolutely nothing you can do: havoc everywhere, water, sewer and gas lines broken, product spilled everywhere. All things topsy turvy. People broken.

Earthquakes are like going bust after you have had money, or getting cancer when you have lived an exemplary life of healthfulness and strength. You cannot conceive of it, but it is the natural outcome of certain forces pressing pressing against each other, until the whole thing slides away into dust.

[TN60]

03:52 PM on 06/25/2010

I can appreciate your feelings about earthquakes, but let me tell you, a tornado will scare you to death.

The weekend that Nashville flooded we under so many tornado watches and warnings for two days, that I finally gave up counting, and I was by myself.

I've lived through two Hurricanes (not direct hits) and earthquakes in SoCa like the Northridge quake (I was in San Clemente) and while I don't like any of them, I think I'm more scared of tornados.

[hollybork]

04:31 PM on 06/25/2010

Tornados are the worst. I agree. I never want to live in Oklahoma. The pictures of the tornados are terrifying.

[Polichick66]

06:15 PM on 06/25/2010

Boy, you REALLY hate earthquakes!

[boredwell]

11:22 AM on 06/25/2010

TWEET about an earthquake? Ok, why not?

[YABookShelf]

08:19 AM on 06/25/2010

I was sitting at my desk in the Plateau region of Montreal when I felt my chair move, then my computer monitors started to really shake. Everyone else started feeling it too, and my supervisor and I just looked at each other like, "do you feel that?" I work at an Internet-based company, so everyone started checking out the news and Twitter to see what was up - if it really was an earthquake. :)

[TN60]

03:56 PM on 06/25/2010

To be felt so far and in so many places, that sounds larger than a 5.0 or a 5.5 quake.

[YABookShelf]

04:43 PM on 06/25/2010

Maybe, I don't know much about these things. It wasn't like anything was going to fall over where I was, but there definitely was some visual evidence. This was only the second earth I've ever felt and the other was very minor...I think even less than what I felt this time.

[btapccampaign]

08:15 PM on 06/25/2010

Are you sure it wasn't Canadian liberals swooning over the fact that Obama had arrived on their soil? Or perhaps it was Mother Nature voicing her disapproval over the handling of the oil spill and letting our "leaders" remember who lasts longer than they do.

[YABookShelf]

08:23 AM on 06/26/2010

Well, if it was the former than the Republicans in the US from Chicago to Maine (at least) must have been happy that Obama had left American soil (maybe they were jumping for joy). Either that or as I heard in another comment in this story, Rush was jumping up and down (for who knows what reason). Thanks for making me chuckle.

The Mother Nature suggestion is better than a lot of the other explanations that people have been giving about the world or God "punishing" Canada. Someone said something about the health care situation, but I seem to think that Americans have something more akin to that explanation now as well. ;)

[hdtracy]

01:22 AM on 06/25/2010

Hailing from downtown Montreal, it certainly disrupted our meeting. My glass of water on the conference room table actually took on a rippled effect. Some in the office blamed in on the construction of another office building next door until word got around.

[Reiziger]

09:33 PM on 06/24/2010

I felt it in my office in southern Maine. Ran to the front office to ask if anyone else had felt it and they all suggested I'd started Happy Hour a wee bit early. Nice to be vindicated by USGS!

[TN60]

03:59 PM on 06/25/2010

LOL.....My late husband, CA guy that he was, would just stay in bed on the second floor instead of getting on the ground level, I never could understand that, when the chandileers were tinkling and our dogs were dancing around....LOL

[Lisa Ryder]

02:13 PM on 06/24/2010

I felt the earthquake at my office, I assumed my arm was shaking my documents I had been working on. I removed it from the pile of papers and the papers kept on shaking. Next assumption, I thought our building was shaking from construction next door. All that shaking was sometime in the afternoon. Must remind myself to get out of the office if I notice shaking again. What this had been the big one?

[Lisa Ryder]

02:17 PM on 06/24/2010

Forgot to mention I'm in Chicago

[3000BC]

12:44 PM on 06/24/2010

Obviously God's mad about gay marriage.

[suvariboy]

12:52 PM on 06/24/2010

That was a joke, right? If you're American (and an evangelical)...one never knows!

[3000BC]

01:05 PM on 06/24/2010

Yes - can't blame you for asking.

[tzoid]

05:11 PM on 06/24/2010

I coulnt agree more but god is realy upset at Canada not just beacause of gay marriges but also scocialized health care, Canada pension plan, old age security, small army, terrorist harbourring, the french in Québec, the beer and Céline Dion

[TMMONE]

12:19 PM on 06/25/2010

You can make fun of us all you want, BUT NOT OUR BEER!

[hollybork]

01:23 PM on 06/25/2010

There you go, especially the Celine Dion bit. Didn't she just do in vitro fertilization? That really makes the Big One mad. Takes away his Sole Creator gig.