Minor shaking startled some people in Esterhazy, Sask., as an earthquake rattled the town Friday night.
Earthquakes Canada confirmed a 3.3-magnitude quake hit the town at about 7:35 p.m. CST and was centred about half a kilometre below the surface.
Earthquakes Canada has not released the cause of the earthquake, but has it listed it as a suspected mining-induced event. Esterhazy, about 180 kilometres northeast of Regina, is home a massive mining complex, which operator Mosaic calls “the world’s largest potash operation.”
Kringle Sarmiendo was in the living room with her one-year-old daughter when the roof of her apartment started shaking as if someone was stomping above her. Sarmiendo said she grabbed her child and ran outside.
“You know when someone is upstairs, like someone is jumping on the roof, [it felt] like that,” Sarmiendo said. “We felt dizzy, we knew that it [was] an earthquake.”
Sarmiendo said earthquakes are common in her home country of the Philippines, but she never thought she’d experience one living in Saskatchewan.
Earthquakes have happened before
Esterhazy has experienced several small earthquakes over the years. There was a 3.8-magnitude quake in 2016, and 19 total earthquakes close to that magnitude in the area since 1981.
Mosaic confirmed mine workers were underground during the earthquake, but no injuries were reported.
Mosaic director of government and public affairs Marnel Jones said earthquakes and mining activity in the area are correlated.
“Mining-induced rhythmic activity is mostly caused by salt removal and injection activities that are happening in the area.”
Although mining may play a factor, Jones explained that the area itself has attributes favourable for earthquake activity and is one of the reasons Mosaic works out of the area.
“The Prairie evaporate formation, which is one of the best products or bodies in the world, is found in that part of the province,” Jones said. “And due to its geological makeup, seismic activity is actually quite common in this part of the province.”
Jones noted that with past earthquakes, the worst that’s happened is a power outage to the mine. In this instance, she said nothing unusual occurred.
Prabhnoor Sanbhu, who works at the Esterhazy Sunset Inn, said the quake was frightening, but so short that some hotel guests didn’t even know it had happened.
“[It was] a couple of seconds, like two or three seconds,” Sanbhu said.
“We had some bottles on the table, they started shaking, and the frames on the walls were kind of shaking a bit too. The floor was rumbling.”
