{"id":21405,"date":"2014-08-10T15:43:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-10T07:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=21405"},"modified":"2014-08-10T15:43:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-10T07:43:32","slug":"earthquake-rumbles-alberta-knocking-out-power-and-shutting-down-gas-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/10\/earthquake-rumbles-alberta-knocking-out-power-and-shutting-down-gas-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthquake rumbles Alberta, knocking out power and shutting down gas plant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>
Image from earthquaketrack.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE, Alta.\u2014The ground rumbled in Alberta on Saturday as the strongest earthquake the province has seen in over a decade hit an area west of Red Deer.<\/p>\n

Natural Resources Canada reported the 4.3 magnitude quake happened at 9:28 local time near Rocky Mountain House.<\/p>\n

It said there were no reports of damage, and that none would be expected from a quake that size.<\/p>\n

Power was disrupted to about 500 customers, including a gas plant near Rocky Mountain House.<\/p>\n

AltaLink spokesperson Scott Schreiner said a substation in the area locked out to prevent a surge or other damage on the system, and that power was restored about two hours later.<\/p>\n

Keyara Corp., which operates the Strachan gas plant, said the facility flared off excess gas when it lost power, but there was no damage.<\/p>\n

Julie Puddell, a spokesperson for Keyara, said the gas was flared as a safety measure. She said Alberta Environment was contacted for air quality monitoring.<\/p>\n

Ted Hickey, the director of community and protective services for Clearwater County, said there was no risk to the public during the flaring.<\/p>\n

Hickey said there were no reports of damage from the quake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some local reports of people feeling something, but they were pretty isolated,\u201d Hickey said, noting he didn\u2019t feel the earthquake at all.<\/p>\n

Still, Honn Kao, an earthquakes seismologist with the Geological Survey of Canada, said there hasn\u2019t been an Alberta earthquake this big since a 4.0 quake shook an area northwest of Rocky Mountain House close to the B.C. boundary in 2001.<\/p>\n

Kao said Alberta isn\u2019t especially well-known for earthquakes. There have been only two other small quakes in the province in the last 30 days, and they were a magnitude of 2 or 3.<\/p>\n

While that may sound like plenty, he said B.C. has had hundreds in the same period, if offshore areas are included. On July 25, there was a 6.2 magnitude quake near B.C. off the coast of the Alaska Panhandle.<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s earthquakes typically happen close to the Rocky Mountains, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis earthquake is a perfect reminder, especially for residents, that this area is active,\u201d Kao said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople should take this opportunity to make sure they are very well prepared for any earthquake in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kao said oil and gas activity hasn\u2019t been ruled out as a potential case for Saturday\u2019s earthquake, and that seismologists would be studying data to see if it may have been a factor. But he pointed out that the region where it occurred experienced quakes prior to energy development.<\/p>\n

While a 4.0 quake wouldn\u2019t be enough to damage buildings, Kao said it could still cause shelves or glasses to fall and cause injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have well-constructed buildings, even a magnitude 6.0 can cause fatalities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE, Alta.\u2014The ground rumbled in Alberta on Saturday as the strongest earthquake the province has seen in over …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","mauthors-rob-drinkwater","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}