Screen grab from Earthquakes Canada website

While a 3.4 magnitude earthquake near Esterhazy could remain classified as “suspected” without confirmation from Mosaic, which operates two potash mines in the area, that doesn’t mean Natural Resources Canada needs to be notified that it took place.

Claire Perry who is a Seismologist with NRC says they already knew when it happened around 7 a.m. Tuesday morning approximately 9 kilometres east-northeast of Esterhazy. However, the more reports they get from people who felt the earthquake, the better.

“We use that information to improve our ground shaking models which are location dependent and that depends on the tetonics of the region, the number of earthquakes historically that have been recorded in that region to help us inform the Building Codes of Canada as to the degree of strength the building needs to be built to that the building needs to endure.”

Many people on social media living in the area said they felt their house shake. The last earthquake in the Esterhazy area on October 13, 2025, was a magnitude 3.7. The largest earthquake ever in the region was magnitude 4.1 in 2019. Because there is generally not a lot of natural earthquakes on the prairies and they also have the solution for the earthquake pegged at a 1 kilometre depth which would correspond to industry related events.