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MARY-ELLEN SAUNDERS
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

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ROTHESAY - An earthquake shook houses and sounded a large boom in Kennebecasis Park Sunday night, says a Natural Resources Canada spokesperson.

Stephen Halchuk, seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said at 7 p.m. on Sunday "a very small earthquake" occurred 12 kilometres north of Saint John in Rothesay.

Neil Shillington, of Calistoga Road in Kennebecasis Park, was doing the dishes after dinner when he heard a loud boom and felt his house vibrate.

"I went downstairs to check the furnace and my wife went onto the front porch," Shillington said.

Outside many of his neighbours were standing on their lawns, peeking out their windows or standing on their front porches, and a police cruiser was slowly making its way down the road, he said.

"The house definitely shook," Shillington said. "We were in disbelief about what it might have been."

Halchuk said the earthquake was caused by the release of mounting pressure and strain built up by the slow moving of the North American plate.

"A magnitude of 2.2 is just on the threshold of people being able to feel it," Halchuk said. "People in the Rothesay area felt it, but people 10 to 15 kilometres away probably didn't notice it at all. It was not large enough to cause any damage, just large enough to be felt."

Sgt. Mike Dickson, with the Rothesay Regional Police Force, said several people called to report the ground shaking and a loud nose. He said police patrolled the area but were unable to find the cause.

Dickson said police were investigating the incident until Monday afternoon when they received official word that the cause was an earthquake.

Dickson said there were no injuries and no damage.

Halchuk said the earthquake was recorded by a seismograph that constantly monitors the earth and picks up signals of shaking from earthquakes, construction blasts and mining activity. He receives that activity via satellite.

Halchuk could not say whether any more earthquakes are expected in the area because Natural Resources Canada can't predict them.

He said about 4,000 earthquakes are recorded in Canada each year, most of which are considered small. He said one to two earthquakes, so small they are not often felt, occur each year in the Saint John area.

Halchuk said the last earthquake that was widely felt by New Brunswickers occurred in the early 1980's when a magnitude 5 shook the entire province.

Shillington said he was traveling to a hockey game when the earthquake shook the province more than 25 years ago.

"The earthquake I experienced (before) was a gentle rumble. It felt more like you expect it to feel like," Shillington said. "This one was a pretty intense boom"¦It was very quick."