The Quebec rockslide occurred on September 19, 1889, after a day of heavy rain in Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. An overhanging piece of slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

 rock broke off from Cap Diamant

Cap Diamant

Cap Diamant is the official name of the cape and promontory on which Quebec City is located, formed by the confluence of a bend in the St. Lawrence River to the south and east, and the much smaller St. Charles River to the north....

 and fell 90 metres (300 feet) onto the houses below. The homes of 28 families on Champlain Street were crushed, burying roughly 100 people under 24 metres (80 feet) of broken slate rock. The final death toll exceeded 40 people.