UPDATED June 23 at 3:50 p.m.

Sudburians felt the effects of a 5.5 magnitude earthquake centred in the Ontario-Quebec border region, about 53 kilometres from Ottawa, at around 1:41 p.m. this afternoon (June 23).

More information about the specifics of the earthquake can be found on the U.S. Geological Survey's website.

Northern Life's building shook back and forth at approximately that time, and other Sudbury residents contacted Northern Life to report that they felt the earth move.

Both Tom Davies Square and the downtown provincial building were evacuated because of the earthquake, according to city spokesperson Pat McCauley. Employees were brought to the Sudbury Arena, and stayed there for about half an hour. 

“(The earthquake in the Ottawa region) was definitely what we felt (in Sudbury) this afternoon,” Amy Henson, a staff scientist with Science North, said.

Henson said the area where the earthquake was centred is home to several geological faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes.

The region experiences earthquakes about once every 10 years, Henson said.

The Globe and Mail reports that Twitter users as distant as Springfield, Massachusetts and Traverse City, Michigan reported feeling tremors. A Globe reporter in Montreal said that city also shook.

“What's very interesting about earthquakes in eastern Canada...is they are generally felt over a much broader region than those earthquakes we might be more familiar with, like earthquakes out in British Columbia or California,” Henson said.

“Usually those earthquakes (in British Columbia or California) are very localized over a small area. But an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5, like the one in the Ottawa region, can be felt in Sudbury.”

Sandra Mews, the owner of Dundee Wealth Management, located on Larch Street in downtown Sudbury, said her office felt the shaking.

The reception desk even shifted several inches. “It felt like when you shake a cube of jello,” Mews said.

One employee with Dundee Wealth Management was on the phone with someone in Toronto, and the person on the other end of the line reported that his cabinet had fallen over, Mews said.

Several members of Northern Life's Facebook fan page, who said they are from areas as diverse as Val Caron, Markstay, Coniston, Garson and the Flour Mill, also felt the shaking.

“I'm in the Flour Mill. I felt it. My stove pushed me back (I was leaning on it),” wrote Joelle Demers-G.

Check back to NorthernLife.ca for more information as it becomes available.