Earthquake felt in Toronto August 23, 2011

I can’t say I felt much of the recent earthquake that hit the eastern seaboard recently, on August 23rd, 2011. I do recall feeling a strange sensation of vertigo for a few moments, and I have felt that when the Earth has moved before. I didn’t know it was an earthquake until later. But thinking back, I have felt that weird sensation during earthquakes in the past.

This quake was apparently a 5.8 on the Richter Scale, centered near Richmond, Virginia. Many have reported feeling it here in Toronto, 1000 KM away from its epicenter, to a much weaker degree.

I did feel the quake last summer! I was in a basement office on the west side of Toronto, and thought someone was jiggling my chair from behind. I felt that familiar sensation of vertigo for a few seconds. Again, it was the tremor from a larger quake a great distance away, so its effects were very slight, and caused no damage or injury that I have heard of.

That’s 2 quakes that have been felt in Toronto in as many years; unusual for this area. Thankfully, they have only been minor remnants of quakes far away.