The Memorial Day Weekend ended with a weak earthquake in New England in southern New Hampshire near the border with Vermont and Massachusetts. Striking outside of West Chesterfield just across the river from Brattleboro, Vermont, USGS reports the weak magnitude 1.4 event struck from a depth of 4.6 km at 8:25 pm last night. While the earthquake was too weak to create any damage or injuries, people did use the USGS website to report they felt shaking in the area around the epicenter.
Memorial Day’s earthquake was very close to where another weak earthquake hit on May 18; that was a magnitude 1.6 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, as this event did, 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.
Earthquakes do happen from time to time in the region. According to the Northeast States Emergency Consortium (NESEC), New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York are all states with a very long history of earthquake activity. In New England, New York sees some of the more impressive earthquake counts and intensities. Since the first earthquake that was recorded in December 19, 1737, New York has had over 550 earthquakes centered within its state boundaries through 2016. It also has experienced strong ground shaking from earthquakes centered in nearby U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Most of the quakes in New York have taken place in the greater New York City area, in the Adirondack Mountains region, and in the western part of the state.
While many of the earthquakes to hit New England are weak, some have been damaging. Of the 551 earthquakes recorded between 1737 and 2016, 5 were considered “damaging”: 1737, 1929, 1944, 1983, and 2002. At about 10:30 pm on December 18, 1737, an earthquake with an unknown epicenter hit New York with an estimated magnitude of 5.2. That quake damaged some chimneys in the city. On August 10, 1884, another 5.2 earthquake struck; this quake cracked chimneys and plaster, broke windows, and objects were thrown from shelves throughout not only New York City, but surrounding towns in New York and New Jersey too. The shaking from the 1884 earthquake was felt as far west as Toledo, Ohio and as far east as Penobscot Bay, Maine. It was also reported felt by some in Baltimore, Maryland.
