Minor earthquake shakes just outside of Montreal early Sunday morning

Facts about the Montreal earthquake Professor Fiona Darbyshire of UQAM's department of earth sciences and the atmosphere explains the Montreal Mar. 6 quake.

MONTREAL — There was a minor earthquake just outside of Mascouche around 3:20 a.m. in Quebec Sunday.

Earthquakes Canada reported the 3.6 magnitude quake with an epicentre seven kilometres from the Montreal suburb.

Reports on earthquake-report.com came from Repentigny, Laval, Montreal, Saint Constant and other communities in the region saying they felt the tremors.

Comments ranged from “light shaking,” to “It woke me up instantly! I wouldn’t be surprised if there are objects in my home that are on the floor.”

The website, which tracks earthquakes, says the epicentre was 10 kilometres below ground.

It’s the second minor earthquake in the Montreal region in March. A 3.3 magnitude earthquake shook the east part of the Island of Montreal Mar. 6 in the morning.

Professor Fiona Darbyshire of UQAM's department of earth sciences and the atmosphere explained at the time that there are fault lines running under the area that make tremors like the one in early March and Sunday morning unsurprising.

“Montreal is in a seismically active zone, so there’s a reasonable chance that an earthquake that’s minor to moderate could happen right underneath the island,” she said.

"It woke me up," wrote a Montreal resident who felt the shake Sunday morning. "There was a loud noise and shaking. I heard things in my curio cabinet shaking. At first I thought a heavy truck was speeding by but the noise was too loud. It lasted about ten seconds."