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July 22, 2019 - 12:13 PM
LUMBY - People in Lumby felt the earth move Saturday night as a very small earthquake hit the small community in the North Okanagan.
Social media was awash with people in Lumby, east of Vernon, saying they were woken up in the early hours of Saturday morning, July 20, and felt the ground shaking.
The Geological Survey of Canada seismologist John Cassidy confirmed a "very small" earthquake measuring between 2.2 and 2.3 in magnitude took place 13 kilometres southwest of Lumby at 3:21 a.m. July 20.
Cassidy said several "felt reports" were received from the Lumby area and it was normal for the Interior to have a few small earthquakes each year.
"Typically these magnitude two earthquakes are not felt, they are just too small," he said.
Cassidy said people probably felt Saturday's earthquake because it happened at night when people are lying still in bed. If the earthquake had happened during the day when people are up and about the feeling of the earthquake is masked by their general movement.
Unlike the knock-on effects sometimes felt in the Okanagan from large earthquakes on the B.C. coast, he said this very small earthquake did originate from the location outside Lumby.
Cassidy said the last big earthquake in the Interior measuring 4.5 in magnitude took place in 1936.
He added its always good to remember if a big earthquake does happen to get under a desk or table and hold on.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2019