Minor offshore earthquake detected southeast of Halifax

CITYnews halifax / By Dan Ahlstrand

You may not have noticed it, but there was an earthquake off the coast of Nova Scotia overnight.

Earthquakes Canada says a magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck about 285 kilometres southeast of Halifax around 9:50 p.m. Sunday.

The agency says the quake had a depth of 10 kilometres. With the epicentre so far from land, there was no impact reported onshore.

Before this, the most recent earthquake in Canada happened off the coast of British Columbia on June 16. A magnitude 4.0 quake rumbled through the waters about 10 kilometres deep. Earthquakes Canada said there were no reports of damage, and it was not felt.

Earthquakes happen all over the world, the organization said, but most (90 per cent) occur on active faults that define the major tectonic plates. In eastern Canada, earthquakes are not related to volcanic processes. Although the rock exists in many areas, the events are too old to have any relationship with today’s quakes.

Another common misconception is that the rate of earthquakes can increase during cold weather. Earthquakes Canada notes that although temperature can affect the ground near the surface, further below it has no effect. Due to this, researchers say there are no months that have more earthquakes than others.

“Examining the list of Canadian or global earthquakes, there isn’t a season that stands out as having an increased number of earthquakes,” it said.