4.4 magnitude earthquake shakes Banff
Banff #Banff
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit Banff, Alta., on Saturday evening, according to the United States Geological Survey’s earthquake tracking site.
The earthquake struck the mountain town around 6:32 p.m. MT, at a depth of around 17.3 kilometres, with an uncertainty of plus or minus seven kilometres, the USGS website stated.
The epicentre of the quake was near Cascade Mountain, about five kilometres north of town.
Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen said she was watching a movie, when she felt rumbling underneath her feet, followed by a loud boom.
“And then the entire house shook … certainly the entire town felt it, my phones were lighting up,” she said.
Sorensen said she’s heard from Canmore’s mayor that the nearby town felt the quake as well.
She said as of 7 p.m., no damage has been reported in the town.
Francis Hopkins, who runs the Grizzly House, one of Banff’s landmark restaurants, said it initially felt like a truck ran into the building.
He stepped outside to confirm that wasn’t the case and reassure customers as to what had happened.
“It was a strange feeling … there was a loud rumbling and shaking in the building,” he said. “It was unnerving. I don’t know how to describe it, sort of like a guttural shake.”
Alarms could be heard going off in nearby buildings, he said, and people were in the street asking what had happened.
Earthquakes in the area are extremely rare, with only a few — all smaller than this one — reported in the last 10 years. The largest, with a magnitude of 6.0, dates back to 1918.