McAdam hit by 51 small earthquakes since Feb. 12

The McAdam area in southwestern New Brunswick has been hit by 51very small earthquakes since mid-February, according to aseismologistwith Natural Resources Canada.

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That's when Stephen Halchukarrived in the village with seismometers, on the heels of reports of dozens of quakes over a period of a few weeks, the largest having a magnitude of 3.7.

Halchuk saidthe largest quake since then had a magnitude of 1.8 and all were within the top kilometre of the Earth's crust, withat least 10 quakes felt by residents.

Though still unclear aboutwhat exactly is going on underground to cause the quakes, Halchuk said he believesitmust be some small structure that's relieving stress, as the earth's plates moveslowly past each other.

"The stress gets built up across the North American plate and gets relieved in the form of small earthquakes. So there must be some small structure here that's allowing that stress to be released," Halchuksaid.

Mayor Frank Carroll saidthe village has been relatively quiet for the last week and a half, though there are still some rumblings. The Earthquakes Canada website lists the last felt quake on Feb. 24 and the last earthquake that registered was on Feb. 27.

The equipment will remain in the village for another couple of months and Halchuk said hehopes to pinpoint the fault source and understand what triggers an earthquake swarm.

He said he thinks it unlikely there will be large damaging quakes in the area, but can't rule out that possibility.