BCER to investigate ‘lightly felt’ earthquake near Fort St. John

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A ‘lightly felt’ earthquake has been reported west of Fort St. John. (Earthquakes Canada)

Updated, June 11th, 2:40 p.m.: This story was updated to include information about the BCER investigation.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — An earthquake near Fort St. John was also felt in Dawson Creek this morning.

According to Earthquakes Canada, the event occurred at 11:28 a.m. on June 11th and was 74 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John.

The agency says the 4.4 magnitude quake was “lightly felt.”

At the time of this writing, no reports of damage have been received.

The BC Energy Regulator said it will investigate the earthquake, saying the event is linked to a well pad that completed fracturing operations on June 5th.

Local Todd Sexton told Energeticcity.ca he felt the impact in his office at the John Deere dealership in Dawson Creek.

“I was sitting at my desk and I felt this vertical kind of feeling and I thought, geez, that’s weird,” said Sexton.

“It was kind of a really slow back and forth movement, and when I looked up, I noticed probably about 500 fan belts hanging from our ceiling and a bunch of them were going back and forth and then I looked at the wall and the tools were swaying back and forth.”

Sexton said no damage was caused to the building or materials.

Fort St. John experienced four previous earthquakes in February this year.

The quakes did not cause any damage to structures, according to Earthquakes Canada, but one farm did report the impact caused premature calving births.