The 1935 Timiskaming earthquake was a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that occurred on November 1, 1935 in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec. It is one of the major earthquakes that have occurred in the Western Quebec Seismic Zone.
The earthquake had its epicentre on a thrust fault in the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben, approximately 10 kilometres north east of Témiscaming, and occurred at 1:03 a.m. ET.
Although the most significant damage connected to the earthquake was to chimneys, both in the immediate area and as far south as North Bay and Mattawa, a railroad embankment near Parent, 300 km away, also collapsed as a result of the earthquake. Researcher E. A. Hodgson later concluded that the embankment slide was already imminent, and was merely hastened by the earthquake vibrations. Some rockfalls and structural cracks were also reported, although there were few major structural collapses aside from the Parent embankment. The relative lack of major damage, despite the fact that it was a strong earthquake, has been attributed primarily to the sparseness of the area's population.
The earthquake was felt over a wide swath of North America, extending west to Fort William (now Thunder Bay), east to Fredericton, New Brunswick, north to James Bay and south as far as Kentucky and West Virginia. Occasional aftershocks were also reported for several months following the earthquake.
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake on January 1, 2000 had its epicentre at Lake Kipawa, very near the epicentre of the 1935 quake. See 2000 Kipawa earthquake.
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