Residents in New Germany didn’t know what was going on when they heard a loud explosion just before midnight on Monday.
Earthquakes Canada has since confirmed the community was hit by a relatively weak 1.8 magnitude earthquake.
“We received calls from residents complaining about a loud bang and initially we thought something may have exploded,” said New Germany Fire Chief Blair Lantz.
Lantz says never in his lifetime had he heard of an earthquake in New Germany so initially they hadn’t considered it.
However, upon arriving at some of the houses that had called in, they pieced it together rather quickly, “They told us they felt the house shake a little bit and a few paintings had fallen off the wall.”
The earthquake struck northwest of New Germany, which is where most of the calls came from.
Lantz says no major damage or injuries were caused by the earthquake and they have been told enough time has passed that the risk of aftershocks remains low.
