7.0 quake on Saturday was one of Canada's strongest on record

A powerful earthquake rattled northwestern Canada on Saturday afternoon, making the event one of the country’s strongest quakes on record.

The magnitude 7.0 struck the Yukon Territory at 1:41 p.m. local time with an epicentre around 250 kilometres west of Whitehorse. Experts with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) found that the quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres.

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The USGS reported at least 33 aftershocks within three hours of the main earthquake, with the largest measuring a magnitude 5.1.

There were no immediate reports of damage, though numerous residents of Whitehorse reported on social media that they felt rattling.

Saturday’s earthquake was the strongest on Canadian soil in 79 years, and one of the country’s top-ten strongest quakes on record. The last time Canada measured an onshore earthquake with a magnitude 7.0 or stronger was on Vancouver Island in 1946.

Canada’s largest earthquake ever observed was the estimated magnitude 9.0 Cascadia Earthquake that struck off British Columbia in January 1700.

Saturday’s earthquake occurred in a region with a high seismic hazard, according to a 2015 analysis conducted by Earthquakes Canada.

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