People make their way back to the Hoyt Building at East Seventh Street and St. Clair Avenue in downtown Cleveland after an earthquake rattled buildings Wednesday. A powerful Canadian earthquake hundreds of miles away shook Ohio, with the sound of plaster cracking and buildings in Cincinnati gently swaying.

Canadian earthquake sends tremors through Cleveland, swaying buildings and rattling nerves

Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 2:09 PM     Updated: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 11:44 PM

Stan Donaldson
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View full sizeTony Dejak / Associated PressPeople make their way back to the Hoyt Building at East Seventh Street and St. Clair Avenue in downtown Cleveland after an earthquake rattled buildings Wednesday. A powerful Canadian earthquake hundreds of miles away shook Ohio, with the sound of plaster cracking and buildings in Cincinnati gently swaying.

Updated 11:28 p.m.

Stan Donaldson, Everdeen Mason and Liz Navratil / Plain Dealer Reporters

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 5.0-magnitude earthquake centered in Canada sent tremors through the Midwest on Wednesday afternoon, rattling buildings and unnerving people in Northeast Ohio.

The U.S. Geological Survey said 5 million people could have felt the quake. The epicenter was 33 miles north of Ottawa and occurred about 1:40 p.m. The impact could be felt in Ohio within minutes.

There were no reports of injuries or major damage to buildings in the Cleveland area, and some residents within range of the earthquake said they didn't feel a thing.

Oliver Boyd, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Program in Memphis, Tenn., said the agency originally rated the quake a 5.5, but it was later reduced to a 5.0.

By the time the rumbling reached Ohio, it would have felt more like a 2.0-magnitude quake, Boyd said.

Scientists will research the cause of the quake, Boyd said.'

Boyd said the earthquake was reported in states from New York to Wisconsin.

Michael Hansen, coordinator for the Ohio Seismic Network, said this is the seventh earthquake to be felt in the state this year. More than 50 earthquakes have been recorded in Ohio in the last decade.

"This was felt over a very wide area," Hansen said. "Small earthquakes here are not uncommon, but every few years you will see something of this size."

The effect of the quake was much greater in Canada, where the Parliament building in Ottawa and other structures were evacuated, according to the Associated Press. A summit of G-20 and G-8 world leaders is being held in that area this weekend, which caused fear that the rumbling was a terror attack, the Associated Press reported.

More than 43,000 people in the United States and Canada had reported feeling the quake by early evening, according to the USGS website. In Northeast Ohio, people posted comments on cleveland.com saying they felt tremors in cities from Niles to Columbus.

View full sizeKen Marshall, The Plain Dealer

In downtown Cleveland, structures including 55 Public Square and some floors of the Terminal Tower were evacuated, but business continued as usual in most others. Many people said they didn't feel the quake at all.

Kathy Obracay, an office manager for Jerome and Associates on the 20th floor of 55 Public Square, said she felt her chair move at the time of the earthquake.

"I felt our whole building move, then the fire alarm went off," Obracay said. "It was a little scary, but everyone was pretty calm going down the stairs."

Karen Ross, 63, who lives in the St. Clair Place high-rise on East 13th Street, said she felt her building sway and was frightened as she sat in her 12th-floor apartment.

"I don't know if it was an aftershock, but it was quite scary," Ross said. "It didn't last long.""

Away from downtown, residents said they could feel the ground shake.

Henry Senyak, 47, of Cleveland, said he felt the tremors on the second floor of a building he owns with his mother in the 2500 block of Scranton Avenue near Tremont.

"The ground shook for about 60 seconds and it was kind of scary," Senyak said. "I've been around for some of the small quakes here and I've never felt one like this."

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/06/cleveland_rumbles_people_repor.html