This map shows the approximate location of Thursday’s earthquake, approximately 203 kilometres from Pond Inlet. It was recorded at 11:55 a.m. EDT. (Illustration courtesy of Natural Resources Canada)
Earthquake in waters off Pond Inlet was 5th recorded in past 15 years
No damage expected, says seismologist
A nearly 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck Baffin Bay on Thursday about 200 kilometres northeast of Pond Inlet, says Michal Kolaj, an Ottawa-based seismologist with the Department of Natural Resources.
“Currently, our best estimate of the earthquake size is that it was a 4.9 magnitude,” Kolaj said in an interview.
“It’s possible it would have been felt, although we have not received any indications that it had been felt.”
The earthquake happened at about 11 a.m. ET.
“I didn’t feel any earthquake and nobody mentioned to me that they felt it,” said Enookie Killiktee, a receptionist at the Pond Inlet hamlet office, on Thursday. “I learned about it after the fact.”
The magnitude of an earthquake is a measure of the amount of seismic energy it releases, as detected by a seismograph. The federal Natural Resources Department recorded similarly sized earthquakes in that region in 2010, 2013, 2014 and again in 2019.
Each increment is 10 times larger than the previous one, meaning, for example, an earthquake that measures 5.0 is 10 times larger than one recorded at 4.0. Kolaj said earthquakes in the 4.0 to 5.0 magnitude range are often felt but rarely cause damage.
The area that includes northeastern Baffin Island and northwestern Baffin Bay is described as a moderate to moderate-high risk zone for earthquakes and is one of the most active regions in eastern Canada, Kolaj said.
The largest earthquake recorded in the region reached a 7.0 magnitude, in 1933, known as the Baffin Bay earthquake.
According to an entry in the Hudson Bay Co. logs for Clyde River at the time, residents felt the earthquake but there was no damage. Residents of the Upernavik region of Greenland reported having felt tremors at the time.
The causes of the cluster of earthquakes in the Baffin region are not well understood, Kolaj said. Located in the stable centre of the North American tectonic plate, seismic activity is concentrated on prehistoric ruptures in the earth’s crust, as opposed to friction between tectonic plates.
On Wednesday, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake — one of the largest ever recorded, according to The Canadian Press — struck the far east area of Russia, causing a tsunami wave nearby nearly 15 metres high.
Its impact set off tsunami warnings in Hawaii and North and Central America.
That area of the Akulliq/Akunniq clan had many legends of earthquakes resulting in rock and glacial ice falls that caused tsunamis. I believe that last one in 1933 resulted in the deaths of several families, with one survivor.
Others related earlier legends of the seas first having record type tides, then enormous waves funnelled into the fiords causing mayhem and destruction. Over a period of 1200 years, several tragedies occurred in Inuit legends/folklore in that area.
I imagine other areas with steep fiords and glaciers have those stories as well since the medieval warm period’s climatic changes caused the original geological changes resulting in the first set of tragic events around 900AD.