Residents were rattled by an early morning earthquake Monday.

A magnitude 4.5 about 10 kilometres off Orcas, Wash. just southeast of Victoria was registered by the US Geological Survey on March 3 shortly after 5 a.m.

The quake, measured at 16.6 kilometres deep, and 42 km east of Sidney was felt across the south coast of B.C.

There is no tsunami watch or warning in effect.

鈥淎t 5:02 I felt motion/swaying from my left to right and back to left in my chair, without the chair actually moving if that can make sense, but it caused me to feel like I was moving 鈥� reminded me of the feeling of last quake,鈥� reader Patricia Moe, who lives in a Tsawwassen apartment building told the Victoria News. 鈥淚t lasted a few seconds. I rushed over to get under my solid wood dining table.鈥�

Earthquakes Canada pegs the magnitude at 4.1, with a shake map extending north to North Vancouver and Parksville and south into Everett, Wash. and Olympic Provincial Park.

The Earthquake Early Warning system did not issue a public alert for this event, because the magnitude and intensity were below thresholds at which harm might be expected, the agency said.

While below the threshold, reports flooded in to the USGS system, with 8,000 people reporting feeling it within two hours of the earthquake. The spread ranged from Powell River to the Frazer Valley to Ucluelet in the west and south the Aberdeen, Wash.

This is the second earthquake felt on southern B.C. in just over two weeks.

On Friday, Feb. 21, a 5.1-magnitude earthquake hit near the Sunshine Coast, around 1:30 p.m.

While there was no damage reported, it was felt by residents up and down the coast of the province. A shallower shift, the earthquake about 24 kilometres northeast of Sechelt, struck at a depth of one kilometre.

In that case, some people in B.C. received alerts to their cellphones from Natural Resources Canada that an earthquake was detected.

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