{"id":603959,"date":"2026-04-14T18:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603959\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:34:09","slug":"3-9-magnitude-earthquake-rattles-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603959\/","title":{"rendered":"3.9 magnitude earthquake rattles Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 3.9 magnitude earthquake rumbled the nation\u2019s capital on Tuesday afternoon<\/a>, according to Earthquakes Canada.<\/p>\n

According to reports, the quake hit near Shawville, Que. about 77 kilometres northwest of Ottawa. It happened about 12:36 p.m. on April 14, the site notes. <\/p>\n

It was at a depth of 13 kilometres. <\/p>\n

Thousands of reports were sent to Earthquakes Canada, according to the government organization. A map from the site shows that people as far as Toronto felt the quake.<\/p>\n

Over two dozen people are reporting that they felt the earthquake as a level 1 intensity, and hundreds more felt it as level 2 or 3. <\/p>\n

The last large earthquake that was felt in Ottawa happened in 2010 when a\u00a0quake hit the Val-des-Bois area north of the capital<\/a>.\u00a0It lasted about 30 seconds and was measured at 5.0 on the Richter scale.<\/p>\n

\"\"Reports to Earthquakes Canada shows thousands of people say they felt the rumble from Shawville, Que.<\/p>\n

Carleton University studying infrastructure risks during quakes<\/p>\n

In the Carleton University Canada Foundation for Innovation-funded structures lab, civil and environmental engineering researchers are conducting tests to understand how buildings respond to intense shaking, and how they can be designed differently to minimize injuries and damage.<\/p>\n

Professor\u00a0Jeffrey Erochko<\/a> said there are seismic hazards in eastern Ontario \u2014 as seen by Tuesday\u2019s example. <\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ottawa Valley, up to Montreal along the St. Lawrence River\u00a0<\/a>are in a moderate seismic zone, Erochko explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between the west and the east is that in the east, although the earthquakes we could get can be just as big as the west, but they happen less often,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve had a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suspended ceilings traditionally look like a grid system with tiles in place. They are often found in office buildings and in schools, researchers explained. The data collected by the lab shows that they are one of the most commonly damaged components of buildings during a quake.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they fall, they are both a falling hazard, and they can prevent barriers to people evacuating the building,\u201d PhD student\u00a0Cameron Flude<\/a>\u00a0said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tThe star on the map indicates the approximate location where the earthquake hit. (USGS) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 3.9 magnitude earthquake rumbled the nation\u2019s capital on Tuesday afternoon, according to Earthquakes Canada. According to reports,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":{"0":"post-603959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-ottawa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}