According to USGS, an earthquake struck the Quebec Province in Canada north and east of Maine along the western bank of the Saint Lawrence River near the town of Saint-Siméon. The earthquake struck at 11:12 am this morning from a depth of 10 km; it was rated a magnitude 2.5 event.
According to USGS, earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or less are rarely felt or heard by people, but once they exceed 2.0 more and more people can feel them. While damage is possible with magnitude 3.0 events or greater, significant damage and casualties usually don’t occur until the magnitude of a seismic event rises to a 5.5 or greater rated event. It is possible the earthquake was felt in northernmost Maine.
Earthquakes aren’t very common in this part of the world but they also aren’t completely unexpected. Earthquakes have struck this part of Canada and Maine before. Just weeks ago, on June 18, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck north and east of today’s near the town of Mont-Joli. A 2.5 struck earthquake west of August on August 8, 2023. On April 24, 2022, an earthquake of similar intensity also struck central Maine. Earlier that month, on April 2, a magnitude 2.0 earthquake struck about 7 miles southeast of Waterville, near the Winslow-China town line. On March 8, a magnitude 2.1 earthquake struck about 2 miles north of Tunk Lake in eastern Hancock County. On February 12, a magnitude 2.4 earthquake struck 12 miles west of Houlton; some locals reported feeling shaking then. On February 4, a magnitude 2.9 event was widely felt in the Bethel area of western Maine, 8 miles from the epicenter in Gorham, New Hampshire. People up to 25 miles away from the epicenter of that earthquake felt it in Maine. Two earthquakes of a 2.0 magnitude hit on January 17 ; one was 2 miles west of Springvale, the other was about 1/2 mile south of Springvale.
According to the Maine Geological Survey with the Department of Conservation, seismic activity in Maine is typical of the Appalachian region of northeastern North America. “There is a low but steady rate of earthquake occurrence,” they report, adding that “The earthquakes are presumably caused by modern stress being released occasionally along zones of weakness in the earth’s crust, but a more specific cause for the earthquake activity is not known
