Canadian earthquake felt in Morris Townsip and Morristown

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Maybe we had a little too much fun at last week’s fourth-grade earthquake competition at Morristown’s Thomas Jefferson School.

A real-life 5.5-magnitude quake, centered north of the Canadian capital of Ottawa at 1:41 p.m., was felt in Morris Township and Morristown. Katie Thomson sent us this account:

usgs map of ontario quake
Epicenter of 5.5-magnitude earthquake in Ontario. Map by US Geological Survey.

Around 1:45 pm, I noticed the building shaking.  It’s not that unusual
– the top floor of this 3-story building on Madison Avenue (near the
border of Morristown and Morris Township) often shakes with people
walking around.  However the normal movement is up and down, and this
felt different, as it was side-to-side.

My coworkers and I asked each other if we felt it, and soon we
realized it was probably an earthquake.  A friend was about to walk
out, and I was about to join her when I realized the shaking was
tapering off and ending. It probably lasted less than a minute total,
though it felt longer.

As one person by me was pulling up the USGS website, I knew that it
would be some time before they updated it, and I went to twitter and
searched for posts including the word earthquake – sure enough, others
in NJ felt it as well, and that’s where I first learned that it was
from an earthquake in Canada.  The USGS site soon showed that it was
at least a magnitude of 5.

I also used a feature on the USGS site to report that I felt tremors
here – so far there are 5 reports from Morristown!

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010xwa7/us/index.html

My fiance was home sick in Morristown, less than a mile away, and I
asked if he felt it but he didn’t.

Quite an exciting hump day!  This was the first time ever that I felt
any tremors, as I usually sleep through any local minor shaking.

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