McAdam again hit by dozens of small quakes as seismologists search for answers

A swarm of small earthquakes is again rattling residents in the southwestern New Brunswick village of McAdam.

Officially, nine earthquakes hit the area on Monday night alone, coming on the heels of more than 23 temblors recorded since Feb. 1.

Mayor Frank Carroll estimates there were 20 to 30 small quakes on Monday night, with many of them not picked up by monitoring equipment located about 95 kilometres away in St. George. One of them registered 3.3 in magnitude.

No injuries have been reported and damage has been minor.

“Some people kind of describe it as a bomb going off,” said Carroll.

“The community was really on edge on Monday,” he said. “It was a horrific day in the world of earthquakes for us.”

The village is giving all residents an “earthquake safety action plan,” advising them on what to do if the quakes worsen.

Lindsey Wilson says a quake rattled her windows hard enough to break one of them.

“We’ve had some damage to our house. We’ve actually had a window get cracked on Sunday night,” Wilson said.

A seismologist with Natural Resources Canada says it isn’t known whether the small quakes are a precursor to a larger one.

“Magnitude 3.3 was quite a bit bigger than they had before,” said John Adams. “But the pattern of activity is unpredictable.”

Natural Resources Canada is sending additional seismology equipment to McAdam to enhance monitoring. It is expected to arrive by noon Thursday if road conditions allow.

Adams advises that if residents feel a quake lasting more than few seconds they should seek cover.

“Because we don’t know what’s going to happen, whether it will get bigger.”

History of earthquakes

McAdam has been hit by similar swarms of earthquakes in the past. One in 2012 lasted 50 days, while another two years later lasted 10 days.

“It passed before in 2012 and we hope it’s going to pass again,” said Carroll.

Adams said there is probably a fault located under the village.

“There has to be a fault in the sense that an earthquake happens on a fault even if we can’t see it,” he said.

“There is an unknown fault under McAdam, as there is probably under most of New Brunswick somewhere.”

“At some point it will be over, but we can’t say it will be over for good,” he said.