Another Small Earthquake Rattles Maine

Did a truck just drive by?

At 2:57 yesterday afternoon a small earthquake of 1.8 magnitude on the Richter Scale was noted by the United States Geological Survey at 1 kilometer south of West Paris, Maine.  The quake was centered 2.1 miles below the earth's surface.

An earthquake at 1.8 magnitude is rarely noticeable.  If you had a glass of water on a table you may have noticed the water inside move a bit, the house may have creaked somewhat and if the dog was asleep on the floor he or she may have woken and looked up for a brief moment.

There are over 900,000 earthquakes registering under 2.5 magnitude in the country every year according to Michigan Tech University.

This is now the 6th earthquake to happen in 2020 here in Maine, with the others being:

August 28th - Turner - 1.7 magnitude

July 29th - Bath - 2.2 magnitude

July 24th - Harrison - 2.1 magnitude

April 11th - Winterport - 2.1 magnitude

March 9th - Scarborough - 2.7 magnitude

In the past 14 years there have been a couple of bigger quakes here in Maine.

On October 16, 2012, one was centered around Hollis Center just outside of Saco, and felt all the way to Bangor.  That one registered in at 4.0 magnitude.

Also there was a pretty good size one here in eastern Maine that happened on October 2, 2006 off the coast of Mount Desert Island. It registered at 4.2 magnitude and was felt all the way to Bangor, and was clearly heard as rolling thunder and then a boom by many downeast during the early evening hours.