Hundreds Report Shaking as New Hampshire Earthquake Rattles the Northeast

The earthquake epicenter was at the orange star inside the colored concentric circles in southern New Hampshire. Image: USGS

According to USGS, hundreds of people have reported feeling the Earth shaking from an overnight earthquake that struck near Concord, New Hampshire. The earthquake, felt throughout portions of the northeast, struck at 11:15 pm last night from a depth of 5.0 km. The magnitude 2.7 event was slightly weaker than a magnitude 2.9 event which struck in central New Hampshire in April. While this most recent earthquake generates more than 450 “Did you feel it?” submissions into the USGS website, there have been no reports of damage or injuries.

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.

New York is no stranger to earthquakes; this map shows the epicenter of every earthquake from 1975 to 2017. Image: NESEC — The Northeast is no stranger to earthquakes; this map shows the epicenter of every earthquake from 1975 to 2017. Image: NESEC

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 second strongest this year. In 2022, New Hampshire also experienced another stronger 2.9 magnitude event on February 4 north of Mount Washington. As with today’s quake, these other earthquakes earlier this year and last year created no injury nor damage reports.