A small earthquake was reported near the municipality of Pointe-Calumet off the northwest corner of the Island of Montreal on Saturday morning.

Earthquakes Canada reported a 2.9-magnitude earthquake at around 5 a.m. that hit about 10 kilometres underground.

A dozen people reported "feeling it" on Earthquake Canada's site and around three dozen felt it and reported it on the U.S. Geological Survey site.

"Lasted for a second or two," wrote one Twitter user responding to the quake. "Felt like it was a wave that rolled under me, moving from one side of the house to the other." 

Seismologist Stephen Crane said Resources Canada analysts detect about 1,500 earthquakes a year in eastern Canada.

"Of those, only a handful of them would actually be felt by the general public," he said. "A lot of them are a lot smaller or in remote places where they don't get felt."

He said earthquakes don't follow any seasonal patterns.

"They can occur at any time in the year," said Crane. "They're not really driven by the weather."