A loud sound and shaking in upstate New York and Canada near Montreal spurred a flood of speculation about an earthquake or meteor on Tuesday night.
Both the U.S. Geological Survey and Earthquakes Canada said it wasn’t an earthquake, but residents weren’t sure.
“Did anyone just feel an earthquake? My little house just shook in Saranac,” said Danika Casey via Facebook.
“So am I mentally challenged or did anyone else feel that earthquake?” said Kelsey Tremblay of Montreal via Twitter.
“Felt like an explosion, or a ’short' earthquake,” Faith MacLeod said on Facebook. “Stepped outside and neighbours were out wondering what it was.”
Others weren’t sure what it was.
“Saw flash then heard and felt in Hudson,” said Caitlin of Montreal. “VERY strong- shook the house and rattled windows.”
“We saw a blue flash 1-2 sec long at 7:30 followed by a loud detonation 10 min later,” said Nora Hague of St. Lazare.
Astronomy writer Andrew Fazekas said that the event was a “possible meteor,” and that it was reported from Ottawa, Ontario through Laval, Quebec.
He elaborated to CTV that a meteor is usually around the size of a small car and travels up to 60,000 kilometers an hour--faster than the speed of sound--which would cause a sonic boom upon entering the lower part of our atmosphere.
“Checking meteor report & skycam clearinghouses but nothing yet,” he said via Twitter. “May only be tomorrow sometime when footage gets uploaded.”
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