Expert: Earthquakes

Early this morning, an earthquake of 4.0 magnitude, was felt in areas from Rigaud to Montreal to Saint-Bruno, and in parts of eastern Ontario, New York state and Vermont as well. (CBC)

Christie Rowe, from the Faculty of Earth and Planetary Science is available to provide background and comment on the earthquake.

"Earthquakes are common in this region around the St. Lawrence because of ancient faults. It’s not a plate boundary but because of the old faults, the continent will always be prone to having earthquakes."

Christie Rowe is the Wares Faculty Scholar and the Canada Research Chair in Earthquake Geology. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences .

christie.rowe [at] mcgill.ca

Yajing Liu, from the Faculty of Earth and Planetary Science has done work on earthquakes in this region in the past and is available to provide background and comment on the earthquake.

“This is the second most active earthquake zone in Eastern Canada after Charlevoix. The Canadian National Seismograph Network reports between 50-60 earthquakes of magnitudes > 2 per year in the Western Quebec seismic zone. It’s a zone that’s at the boundary of two geological units.”

Yajing Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill. Her research has focused on understanding fault mechanical behavior and strength evolution in relation to earthquakes and episodic aseismic slip events along major plate boundaries.

yajing.liu [at] mcgill.ca