PERSPECTIVE: Shaking things up

Talk about shaking things up. As I sit here writing CMJ's Net News on a Wednesday afternoon, I have just had the experience of an earthquake rumble through. It wasn't a very strong one - nothing fell down - but it did seem to go on for well over a minute. Early reports put it at a magnitude of 5.5 centred approximately 55 km northeast of Ottawa and 15.7 km below the surface.

My son ran into the office to tell me he was on the phone with someone in Toronto who said things shook there, too. Reports came in from Montreal, Sudbury and U.S. cities where people felt the earth shake.

The sensation of the world shaking under my feet is an uncomfortable one. I prefer my world to be solid, moving only imperceptibly. But earthquakes happen and make for interesting study. Unfortunately, they cannot be predicted with any certainty. And I do worry about that sort of thing, seeing as our house in built in extremely sandy soil on the bank of the Ottawa River.

This is not the first earthquake I have experienced. The low rumble that accompanies a quake is unmistakable. I first heard it over 25 years ago when a tremblor rattled through Ottawa. And there was another one a few years later during Grey Cup week. I am extremely thankful no damage or injury occurred.

I can be certain that I didn't imagine the event because the http://EarthquakesCanada.NRCan.gc.ca website was immediately overloaded.