An earthquake struck New Hampshire this morning at 9:49 am; while seismographs detected the rattle, so did more than 100 people who reported feeling shaking to USGS through their “Did you feel it?” web reporting tool. The magnitude 2.9 event struck just southwest of Center Sandwich in New Hampshire at a depth of 6.8 km. The epicenter was located on the west slopes of Eagle Cliff, just east of Squam Lake and northwest of Lake Winnipesaukee.
While 156 people reported the earthquake to USGS, there are no reports of any injuries or damage.
Earthquakes aren’t completely rare in this part of the country; some can even be damaging. According to the Northeast States Emergency Consortium, there were 320 earthquakes between 1638 and 2016; earthquakes that struck in 1638 and 1940 produced damaging results.
While earthquakes do strike from time to time, none were strong or damaging in New Hampshire this year. Today’s earthquake was New Hampshire’s strongest this year, and just as strong as last year’s strongest quake, which was also a 2.9 magnitude event that struck on February 4 north of Mount Washington. As with this quake, there were no reports of any injuries or damage.
Today’s earthquake in New Hampshire does not appear related to a series of earthquakes to strike western New York in recent days. 10 earthquakes have struck in the last 7 days around Adams Center south and west of Watertown. The strongest of that swarm was a magnitude 3.6 event which struck on April 23.
