USGS reported a relatively weak earthquake rattled portions of New England this weekend; specifically, the earthquake struck west of Boston in eastern Massachusetts. While most people didn’t feel the earthquake, several people did use the USGS website to report that they felt some shaking from the earthquake using their “Did you feel it?” tool.
According to USGS, the magnitude 1.8 event struck at 1:54 pm Saturday afternoon at a depth of 6.6 km. The epicenter was 1.3 miles south of the town of Boxborough located in Middlesex County. While people did report feeling the shaking and rattling tied to the quake, it wasn’t strong enough to do any damage.
Maine also had an earthquake in recent days; a magnitude 1.6 event struck about 3 miles from Centerville, Maine on the morning of September 21. This Maine quake is too far away to be related to this weekend’s Massachusetts earthquake.
Maine also had a more noticeable earthquake on September 16. During that event, the loud noise of the earthquake combined with the shaking convinced many that an explosion had occurred. However, USGS quickly clarified that it was a natural seismic event.
New England does get earthquakes from time to time and some can be quite significant. According to USGS, the largest known New England earthquakes occurred in 1638 (magnitude 6.5) in Vermont or New Hampshire, and in 1755 (magnitude 5.8) offshore from Cape Ann northeast of Boston. The Cape Ann earthquake caused severe damage to the Boston waterfront.
