A small earthquake Wednesday night was felt by people in Victoria and as far away as Sooke and Abbotsford, creating an "odd sensation" but  no injuries.

The small 3.3 magnitude quake was detected off San Juan Island at 10:36 p.m, 60 kilometres below the Earth’s surface and 13 kilometres east of Sidney in Haro Strait, said Taimi Mulder, seismologist with Earthquakes Canada. It occurred “in the subducted Juan de Fuca plate,” meaning one tectonic plate moved under another.

Residents in Victoria, Sooke, Abbotsford and Maple Ridge felt the shaking, said Mulder.

Fairfield resident Elaine Woodward said she was reading last night when her entire second-floor apartment began to shake.

It’s the first time she has felt an earthquake in her five years living in Victoria. “I was really excited,” she said, although the small magnitude of it made it “kind of boring.”

One Victoria resident on Twitter said the shaking lasted for about three seconds.

That didn’t leave enough time for “duck and cover,” said Rhiannon Hamdi, who lives on Dallas Road.

“It was a very odd sensation and the house contents rattled with each wave,” she said.

After the earthquake, Hamdi filled out an Earthquakes Canada survey and noted about 100 others who had felt the quake did the same.

Susan Atchison said she thought her Vancouver home had been buffeted by a strong gust of wind when it creaked and she described hearing a whooshing sound.

But Atchison thought otherwise when she looked outside and realized the trees weren't moving.

"It was so brief," she said. "There was really no violent shaking or anything, so I figured it had to be quite a ways away."

The majority of reports to the Natural Resources Canada website listed the shaker as "weak."

The same website also shows nearly 70 earthquakes of magnitude ranging from 0.9 to 4.8 have been recorded along coastal British Columbia since Dec. 1, with only a handful strong enough to generate any reports, and none causing any damage.

To fill out the Earthquakes Canada survey, click here.

With a file from The Canadian Press

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