As many as 140,000 Quebecers will ‘drop, cover and hold’ Thursday morning, as they part in an emergency earthquake drill Thursday morning.

It's part of a worldwide drill called ‘The Great ShakeOut.'

Quebec’s campaign also includes an earthquake simulator, which was on display at Place Montreal Trust to help people prepare for a hypothetical disaster.

The machine mimics the sensation of three levels of seismic activity, from a 5.1 rumble to an unsettling 6.2 shake, with the highest being a 7.4 magnitude earthquake.

“In an earthquake or tornado or risk like that, you don't have much time to take the right action, so we want to make it a reflex, so people know what to do,” said Isabelle Primeau, spokesperson for The Association of Quebec Civil Security.

Quebec has three active earthquake zones:

  • Charlevoix-Kamouraska
  • Western Quebec, from Montreal to the Ottawa Valley, up to the Témiscamingue
  • Lower St-Lawrence and North Shore

In the event of an earthquake, Primeau has this advice:

“Find something that's stable, go underneath it and hold. so then you're protected from anything that could fall,” she said.