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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday May 5, 2006 `Small earthquake' had some residents looking for explosion Continued from page 1 According to Stephen Halchuk, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, these kinds of quakes along the western edge of Lake Ontario are nothing unusual and occur once "every few years." "This is a very small earthquake," Halchuk said, noting it would have produced a loud "boom" sound near the epicentre. "It's basically large enough to be felt by people in the immediate area." He said it is possible tremors may have been felt in Burlington, but "by only a few people." He said the radius of the quake's tremors could have been as wide as 50 kilometres. Oakville's Gail Simon and her cat felt the quake "big-time" at her Falgarwood Drive home. "I was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper and the whole house rumbled. It was unbelievable," she said, adding that her cat "freaked out." "I went around the house checking Deluxe Tri-Mix Maxi-Soil $ 1 cu. yd. bag 110 * *includes local delivery for cracks and broken windows ­ that's how hard it was." Simon called her husband at work and asked him if he felt the quake. "He said, `No, no, no, there was no earthquake,' and he laughed at me," she said, laughing, too. "I knew it was an earthquake because I've seen a lot of movies on them." A news report later in the day confirmed her suspicion. Hours after the quake, Simon was still checking for cracks in her home. "I'm too nervous to go down to check the basement," she said. "It was creepy ­ really creepy." Laura LaCaprara was standing on her deck with a friend at her Bayshire Drive home in Oakville when they heard what she describes as "a distant thunder rumble," and then everything started shaking. "It was very unnerving. My deck was "I thought it was probably some huge explosion because there was a noise. I didn't think earthquakes made noise." Laura LaCaprara 2 or more bags SAVE! $10 per bag Maxi soil consists of Peat Loam, Composted Mulch and Composted Manure. Used for lawn top-dressing and flower and vegetable gardens. A complete soil for filling containers. COLLECTIBLE COUPON! SAVE 5to50% Saturday & Sunday, May 6 & 7 ONLY! SCRATCH & Deluxe Cedar Mulch also available. moving under my feet and we both just kind of went, `Woah, what was that?'" she said. "I thought it was probably some huge explosion because there was a noise. I didn't think earthquakes made noise." LaCaprara figured the explosion happened at the nearby Ford plant, but didn't see fire trucks or police respond to the noise. "I just thought, how can something happen that could make the ground move like that and not be something?" she said. "I knew something big happened somewhere." Her friend called later in the day to inform her of the earthquake after hearing the report on the radio. According to Halchuk, North America sits on one slow-moving plate. The stress of the shifting plate produces fault lines deep in the Earth's crust that release energy and create small tremors. "(The lines) don't necessarily reach the Earth's surface," he said. "It's not like two plates rubbing against each other like you have on the west coast of Canada." Earthquakes would have to have a magnitude of at least 5.5 to cause damage, Halchuk said. Two earthquakes of 3.8 magnitude were recorded in Lake Ontario in 1999 and 2004. They are on the largest recorded on record in the lake, dating back to 1970. According to the Natural Resources website, there have been 15 registered earthquakes in Canada this year - four in Ontario, including Oakville. Of the 15, the biggest was measured at 5.7 magnitude and was located 111 kilometres southwest of Norman Wells, Northwest Territories. With files from Jason Misner, Krissie Rutherford, Howard Mozel Holland Park PRESENTED BY Honda hosts MS fundraiser Oakville Honda is hosting its first annual women's self defense seminar on May 5 and admission is free with a donation for the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society. The women's self defense seminar will be taught by a group of Kung Fu professionals and will be held at the dealership at 500 Iroquois Shore Rd., east of Trafalgar Road north of QEW. The seminar runs from 6 - 8 p.m. It will teach awareness of self and surroundings, self defense techniques and recognizing danger before it happens. To register, call Oakville 1-800-518-7935. Space is limited. Oakville Honda's sales department is also donating $100 for every car sold on May 5, 6 and 8. For more information, see www.oakvillehonda.com. 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