Earthquake ‘swarm’ rattles small New Brunswick village of McAdam

Earthquakes are on everyone’s mind in the small village of McAdam, near Fredericton, these days. In fact, a Global News interview with the mayor of the village was interrupted slightly when a small tremor rumbled outside.

“By the way, I think you just heard a mild earthquake,” said Mayor Frank Carroll after hearing a small bang or boom outside the room.

“You can also experience the movement of the earth at the same time for the most part.”

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The village is going through what is called an earthquake swarm – a series of earthquakes over a short period of time. Carroll said he’s counted up to 30 small quakes over the past few days but he calls this past Monday extraordinary.

“We must have had twenty that day alone and into the night, so it was very, very nervous and a very upsetting day for the community.”

READ MORE: Why have there been so many earthquakes off the coast of B.C.?

Residents remember it well, one likened the sounds to a thunder and lightning storm.

“Sometimes you get louder cracks than others and the loudest ones sort of did give you a little shake, almost like a serious thunderstorm would,” said McAdam resident Derek Thurber.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Sometimes you get louder cracks than others and the loudest ones sort of did give you a little shake, almost like a serious thunderstorm would," said McAdam resident Derek Thurber.

Fifteen-year-old Brayden McIver was also startled by the tremors.

“One time I was sleeping, about 2:30 in the morning and then a big crash, just insanely loud and it woke me right up,” he said.

Serious situation for seismologists

Seismologists are taking the situation in McAdam seriously, with a team from Earthquakes Canada is expected to be in the village Thursday to conduct more in depth testing.

Doctor Karl Butler is with the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Brunswick. He says seismic sensors will be installed in the village similar to 2012, when a similar event happened.

“It will give people more knowledge of where the area that is actually cracking and popping and it also gives us information on the mechanism on the failure in the ground,” he said.

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The village is also circulating information flyers in the mail for residents where there is real concern that the situation could escalate.

“There could be the one that could be pretty serious for our community and nobody’s looking for that,” said Carroll.

Butler says earthquakes are very unpredictable.

“To err on the side of caution, we can’t say nothing larger will happen,” he said.

The first seismic sensors are expected to be put in place near the high school on Thursday morning.