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The walls start suddenly to shake and groan.

First, it’s a dull rumbling sound, like a heavy truck where no truck should be. Then comes a banging and clanging that threaten to rend the walls and the ceiling of your office.

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Outside, falling plates clatter along the ground of the Sparks Street patios. Over on Bank Street, walls bulge outward. Bricks from the older stores fall to the sidewalk and to the street.

In Sandy Hill and down in the ByWard Market, some walls of old brick homes and stores give way. The city’s oldest stone and brick churches, which have stood since the 1800s, shift ominously.

Up on Parliament Hill, the massive stone blocks tremble and overhead light fixtures rattle, but nothing collapses.

Welcome to Ottawa’s great earthquake. It’s an imagined scenario, a tale of “what if?”

But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

Photo by DENNIS LEUNG / OTTAWA CITIZEN

We know the Ottawa area could face a substantial earthquake because it has happened before: In Cornwall in 1944, when a midnight earthquake damaged hundreds of buildings; in Témiscaming in 1935; in Montreal in 1732. All these cities are part of our “seismic zone,” meaning we all share common fault lines in Earth’s crust.