Rare Magnitude 5.8 quake rattles Canada's far north
Digital Reporter
Sunday, January 8, 2017, 9:08 PM - A Magnitude 5.8 earthquake was detected Sunday night in Canada's far north.
The tremor struck at a relatively shallow depth of about 19 km, in the Barrow Strait between Somerset Island, Devon Island and Cornwallis Island.
The latter is home to the community of Resolute, and the quake's epicentre was around 86 km away. With its population of a little more than 200, it is Canada's second most northern inhabited civilian community.
There have not yet been any reports of damage or injuries.
Prelim M5.8 earthquake Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada Jan-8 23:47 UTC, updates https://t.co/c42VjGED2B, 0 #quake tweets/min
— USGSted (@USGSted) January 9, 2017
"I would expect the damage to be pretty minor, if there was any," Earthquakes Canada seismologist Nick Ackerley told Global News.
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Canada's Arctic region occurred in 1933, when a Magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Baffin Island, then part of the Northwest Territories. Earthquakes Canada says the tremor was the "largest instrumentally recorded earthquake to have occurred along the passive margin of North America and coincidentally is also the largest known earthquake north of the Arctic Circle."
SOURCES: USGS | Earthquakes Canada | Global News
