SUSSEX, N.B. -- A seismologist says a cluster of earthquakes was detected in southern New Brunswick over around a two-week period, but it's unlikely residents in the area even felt a tremble.
Maurice Lamontagne of Earthquakes Canada says a total of 10 earthquakes occurred about 25 kilometres outside Sussex between Sept. 19 and Oct. 5.
Lamontagne says the earthquakes were of such low magnitude -- about 2.3 on the Richter scale -- that people in the sparsely populated area may have heard a rumble, but probably felt nothing beneath their feet.
He says the quakes were relatively shallow and focused less than five kilometres beneath the earth's crust.
Lamontagne says the pattern of seismic activity, known as an earthquake swarm, has settled and will most likely die out -- only in less than one per cent of cases does it lead to a larger earthquake.
The seismologist says he and his colleagues are monitoring the situation but "it's really mother nature that decides."
In February, more than 100 earthquakes rocked the village of McAdam near the New Brunswick-Maine border, but seismic activity in the area has since subsided.