January 25, 2005
McLeans - Canada
HALIFAX (CP) - A moderate earthquake rumbled across the ocean floor off Nova Scotia on Tuesday, but caused no tidal activity.
Janet Drysdale of the Geological Survey of Canada said the quake measured 4.7 on the Richter scale and was centred about 410 kilometres southeast of Louisbourg, N.S. "It's one of the larger events we've had in a while in the region, but because of its distance from land, nobody would have felt it," she said from Ottawa.
"If it was on land, people would feel it but you still wouldn't expect damage."
The quake was located in the same area as a 7.2-magnitude tremor that produced a tsunami that swept parts of coastal Newfoundland in Nov. 18, 1929, killing 28 people.
Drysdale said Tuesday's quake was the second in the area since a 3.2-magnitude disturbance last July.
However, she cautioned that people needn't worry these moderate quakes are a precursor to something bigger.
"We see these on a regular basis offshore and in this area, so I wouldn't say this is anything out of the ordinary at all," Drysdale said.
There has been heightened awareness to quake-induced tsunamis since more than 160,000 people died when a giant wave hits parts of southeast Asia on Dec. 26.
Canada said this week it wants to take part in a multimillion-dollar program the United States is undertaking to expand a tsunami warning system to the Atlantic Ocean.
The U.S. announced late last week that it will include new areas of the Pacific, and for the first time, the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico in a warning system.
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