A 3.9-magnitude earthquake rattled the ground beneath homes in parts of west Quebec this weekend, hours after another quake devastated Chile.

The earthquake shook the ground near Lachute, Que. on Saturday at about 10:50 p.m., according to Earthquakes Canada. The quake's epicenter was recorded about 13 kilometres northwest of the small town, which is about 25 minutes northeast of Hawkesbury. There were no immediate reports of damage.

Louise Tremblay, who lives about 50 km northeast of Lachute, was sitting on her couch in Ste. Adele, Que., watching images of destruction from the earthquake in Chile on television when she was startled by a loud noise.

"I thought it was a bulldozer breaking down the house," Tremblay told CTV.ca in a telephone interview Sunday morning. Almost in disbelief, Tremblay stayed on her couch until the noise of the quake -- and the rattling of the air vents in her log cabin -- stopped.

Thinking she'd just felt an earthquake, but not believing it, she called her mother who lives in nearby Ste. Anne-des-Lacs. She'd felt it, too.

The weekend earthquake was not the first to hit west Quebec. The Ontario-Quebec border is a hotbed of seismic activity, with earthquakes occurring in the western Quebec seismic zone every five days on average, according to Earthquakes Canada.

The strongest earthquake ever recorded in Canada was an estimated 8.7 to 9.2-magnitude quake that hit southwestern British Columbia in 1700.

With a report from CTV.ca News Staff