Communities from Maine to Massachusetts felt a 3.8 magnitude earthquake rattle throughout the bottom Monday morning.
The quake originated 10 km southeast of York Harbor, Maine, at 10:22 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported Monday.
“It was offshore of York Harbor, which is down near the border … just slightly offshore,” mentioned Susan Hough, a seismologist with USGS based mostly in Pasadena. “It was widely felt. It’s been widely reported through the Did You Feel It? system. We’ve got 32,000 people, because that’s a populated corridor.”
The USGS doesn’t “expect damage given the magnitude and the location,” Hough mentioned. The strongest reported shaking as of midday was “probably not strong enough to knock things off of shelves, let alone to do actual damage,” she added.
“MEMA has received reports of shaking felt in MA, but no reports of damage at this time,” the Massachusetts Emergency Administration Company posted on X, previously Twitter, at 10:50 a.m. “Remember, during an earthquake: drop, cover and hold on for safety.”
The NWS Nationwide Tsunami Warning Heart acknowledged there was “NO tsunami danger from this earthquake” in an alert at 10:26 a.m.
Earthquake stories got here in from all the best way down via Nantucket, Massachusetts, up via Augusta, Maine, and over to Montpelier, Vermont.
It was possible felt out to individuals a minimum of 200 miles from the epicenter, Hough mentioned, explaining that vitality travels “more efficiently” and quakes are typically felt farther alongside the East coast than they’d be out West.
The primary shake will not be the top of the geological disruption.
“Statistically, any earthquake raises the odds of more earthquakes, most commonly aftershocks,” Hough mentioned. “At the 3.8 we expect to have a few small aftershocks. There’s always a small chance — that’s a few percent — of something bigger happening in the same area within the next week or so.”
Earthquake exercise can “disturb other faults in a way that that can occasionally cause bigger earthquakes,” Hough mentioned, however the likelihood is small.
“I think mostly it’s a reminder that the Atlantic seaboard does have infrequent earthquakes, not like California.
Across Massachusetts, people reported computers wobbling, coffee sloshing and floorboards rattling.
“I immediately turned to look around because I assumed someone was either stomping very loudly behind me or that something very heavy had been dropped,” mentioned Danielle Tompkins, who was taking a gathering within the South Finish of Boston on the time of the quake. “At the same time I realized nothing was near me, a client spoke up and paused the meeting to ask if we were all feeling the earthquake as well.”
Earthquakes within the New England space are “unusual obviously but not unheard of,” Hough mentioned. The biggest reported earthquake within the space was documented in 1755 offshore of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, at a magnitude round 6.
“Coming through to more recent times, there have been four-ish events,” Hough mentioned. “Offshore of Maine in 1904 was the biggest event thought to have been in Maine. It was a 5.9 estimated. And then you have magnitude four-ish events, a sprinkling of them. 1973 there was an estimated 4.7. On Oct. 2, 2006, there was a 4.2 near Bar Harbor. Oct. 16, 2012 there was a magnitude 4 near Hollis Center, Maine.”
There’s not an “active plate boundary between the North American and the Pacific plates” in the best way there are lively faults out West, Hough mentioned. The North American plate is “sort of glued to” the Atlantic, the seismologist described, and so they transfer collectively.
“But you do have topographic offsets, you have erosion, and it’s not entirely understood,” mentioned Hough. “There’s theories, but there are relatively more earthquakes along the coast than, say, the middle of the continent, like in Wisconsin, where you have a very old stable plate.”
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