Arctic Red River (Oct 18/04) - A hamlet radio personality not only has his voice on the airwaves but keeps his ear to the sometimes shaky ground.

Jimsy Cardinal is an earthquake buff who likes keeping track of the latest rumblings in the Beaufort-Delta region.

"My interest started in 1998 when I noticed the rocks sliding down the hills along the Mackenzie River," said Cardinal, who operates CHTC 99.9 FM radio in Tsiigehtchic.

"I wanted to collect information on global warming and I then started to look into earthquakes in the area."

A recent earthquake in Tsiigehtchic measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale was the latest shake up, but it didn't surprise Cardinal.

"We are situated in a fault area," he said.

"There is a fault line about 30 miles outside of Fort McPherson."

Much of his information comes from sources on the Internet, such as the natural resources Web site or various earthquake centres.

He said he has noticed a greater amount of activity in the North over recent years.

Alaska and the Yukon are both prone to earthquake activity, he said. But Tsiigehtchic residents have mostly become accustomed to dishes rattling and the earth shaking.

"They don't get nervous. Valleys get earthquakes more than the hills do. "I thought we were going to get a big one in September, but we didn't yet."