Should Quebecers consider earthquake home insurance? Experts weigh in

You may not notice the rumbling and the shaking, but hundreds of earthquakes hit eastern Canada every year.

You may not notice the rumbling and the shaking, but hundreds of earthquakes hit eastern Canada every year.

In fact, Montreal is one of Quebec's highest earthquake risk zones, according to Earthquakes Canada.

"Starting from the south, we have the western Quebec seismic zone, which extends from Témiscaming to the Ottawa Valley, and includes Montreal as well," explains Yajing Liu, an associate professor with McGill University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. "Then, it goes up along the Saint Lawrence River to the Charlevoix seismic zone, where there was a meteorite impact crater about 350 million years ago."

Additionally, Liu adds the province also comprises the Bas-Saint-Laurent seismic zone.

"Those are the three major active seismic zones in eastern Canada," she said, noting it's been the case for hundreds of years.

"We know that in history, like Montreal, we had a magnitude five point something, 5.8 I think, in the 17th or 18th century," Liu said. "In the Charlevoix seismic zone, we also know there have been five, magnitude six and larger earthquakes since the 17th century."

She admits that when people think of earthquakes, they're more likely to mention Japan or California.