{"id":794136,"date":"2026-07-11T02:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/794136\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T02:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:58:23","slug":"3-8-magnitude-earthquake-in-northwestern-alberta-thursday-startled-some-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/794136\/","title":{"rendered":"3.8-magnitude earthquake in northwestern Alberta Thursday startled some residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Grande Prairie, Alta., resident Stephanie Brown says it seemed like her whole condo shook Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my kitchen area, it sounded like a crack sound in the wall, but there\u2019s no visible damage\u2026 and outside, a dog started barking,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

According to Earthquakes Canada<\/a>, a 3.8-magnitude earthquake occurred about 35 kilometres south of Grande Prairie around 6:30 p.m. MT Thursday. It was felt widely throughout the region, with the federal agency receiving more than 30 reports, including a couple from B.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was, of course, a bit of a large event, but it\u2019s nothing that\u2019s too far out of the ordinary \u2014 at least for this region,\u201d said Brindley Smith, a seismic analyst for Natural Resources Canada\u2019s (NRC) Canadian Hazards Information Service.<\/p>\n

People may not always notice them, but since 2019, there have been more than 15 events of this magnitude or greater within 50 kilometres of the July 9 epicentre.<\/p>\n

For Brown, Thursday marked the second earthquake she has felt in her 13 years living in Grande Prairie, roughly 390 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.<\/p>\n

\"earthquakeEarthquakes Canada, part of Natural Resources Canada, suspects Thursday’s earthquake was industry-related. (Submitted by Earthquakes Canada)<\/p>\n

Jason Johnston, a longtime resident of the hamlet of Grovedale, about 20 kilometres south of the city, was closer to the quake site. It startled him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was laying in bed and the whole trailer shook,\u201d Johnston told CBC News.<\/p>\n

It sounded like someone stepped onto his deck, he added, but \u201cI look outside and there\u2019s nobody there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston didn\u2019t realize an earthquake had actually occurred until he checked Facebook later Thursday evening, he said.<\/p>\n

Smith, from NRC, said effects of a roughly 4.0-magnitude earthquake are sometimes felt hundreds of kilometres away.<\/p>\n

Human activity suspected cause<\/p>\n

Earthquakes Canada suspects Thursday\u2019s event to be industry-related. The Alberta Geological Survey, a branch of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), has deemed the quake to be \u201cknown induced.\u201d<\/p>\n

AER Directive 065<\/a>, which came into effect on March 31, requires companies to engage mitigation protocols when \u201cevents\u201d occur, an agency spokesperson told CBC News in an email.<\/p>\n

In this case, \u201cthe reporting operator has undertaken those mitigation measures,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Known induced or industry-related earthquakes are common in Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and other oil-and-gas-rich regions, according to Rebecca Swinscoe, a research scientist who works out of NRC\u2019s Geological Survey of Canada.<\/p>\n

Fracking and wastewater disposal can induce earthquakes, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we inject fluid into those faults and those fractures, the stress inside those zones increases and that causes what’s known as slip or failure along those fractures,\u201d Swinscoe said.<\/p>\n

Scientists and operators have made \u201chuge technological advances\u201d over the past decade to try to reduce risk of industry-caused earthquakes, but the risk will always persist, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s not ideal. Yes, it’s likely to continue,\u201d Swinscoe said. \u201cBut we do have regulations in place that limit the likelihood of those larger magnitude events.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-794136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794136","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=794136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}