The 1933 Baffin Bay earthquake struck
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
and the
Northwest Territories (now
Nunavut),
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
with a
moment magnitude
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
of 7.4
at on November 20.
The main shock
epicenter
The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Surface damage
Before the instrumental pe ...
was located in
Baffin Bay on the east coast of
Baffin Island. Shaking was only felt at the small town of
Upernavik
Upernavik (Kalaallisut: "Springtime Place") is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,092 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. It c ...
, Greenland. The event is the largest recorded earthquake to strike the passive margin of
North America and is the largest north of the
Arctic Circle. No damage was reported because of its offshore location and the small population of the nearby onshore communities.
Tectonic setting
Canada is not typically associated with seismic activity, however, Canada does experience infrequent large earthquakes. At the location of the earthquake, there is an extinct spreading center which formed the Baffin Bay itself. This passive margin is seismic, and occasionally reactivates to slip in a strike slip manner.
[
]
Regional seismicity
The region around northwestern Baffin Bay and northeastern Baffin Island continues to be seismically active.
See also
*List of earthquakes in 1933
This is a list of earthquakes in 1933. Only magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes appear on the list. Lower magnitude events are included if they have caused death, injury or damage. Events which occurred in remote areas will be excluded from the ...
*List of earthquakes in Canada
This is a list of earthquakes in Canada.
List
Abbreviations used:
See also
*Hydraulic fracturing in Canada
References
External links
*Natural Resources CanadEarthquakes Canada*Earthquakes CanadRecent earthquakes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Earthquake ...
References
Sources
*
*
External links
*
1933 Baffin
1933 Baffin
1933 earthquakes
1933 disasters in Canada
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