The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.2 and a maximum Rossi–Forel intensity of VI (Strong tremor) and was centered in the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Laurentian Slope seismic zone.

[1] In 2002 Natural Resources Canada and the United States Geological Survey, created an intensity map by using the Revised Modified Mercalli scale.

[3] In the French Overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon,[7] about 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of the Burin Peninsula, residents were startled around 16:30h by an earthquake lasting approximately one minute.

It took three days for the S.S. Meigle to respond to a distress signal, sending supplies, aid workers, doctors, nurses, blankets, and food.

[6][8] In 1952, scientists from Columbia University put together the pieces of the sequentially-broken cables, leading to the discovery of the landslide and the first documentation of a turbidity current.

[9] Scientists have examined layers of sand, believed to be deposited by other tsunamis, in an effort to determine the regional frequency of large earthquakes.

[citation needed] The frequency of large tsunamis varies according to the deposition of sediments offshore, as it was the submarine landslide's power that triggered the wave.