Small earthquake rattles New England

AccuWeather

A magnitude 3.8 earthquake was detected off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine on Jan. 27. Was it connected to other recent quakes?

Transcript

00:00Many people in New England felt some shaking earlier today.

00:03There was a relatively minor earthquake

00:06that occurred near York Harbor, Maine

00:08at around 10.30 this morning.

00:10Yeah, joining us again is Maureen Long,

00:12seismologist, professor, and chair of Earth

00:15and Planetary Sciences at Yale University.

00:17Thanks so much for joining us, Maureen.

00:19Great to be with you.

00:21Now, when and how did you learn

00:23about this morning's earthquake?

00:24I'm sure with what you do for work,

00:25anyone who knows you personally

00:27and felt the earthquake was probably reaching out to you.

00:30That's absolutely right.

00:31As it happens, I have family in Southern Maine

00:34and Northeastern Massachusetts.

00:35I grew up in the Boston area and my phone started ringing.

00:39My sister called and 30 seconds later,

00:42my brother called, my dad texted.

00:44So I had quite a few family members

00:46who felt a little bit of a jolt this morning.

00:49We understand that initially this was a 4.1 earthquake,

00:52but it was adjusted downward since to 3.8.

00:55So how big was it and where was it felt?

00:59That's right.

01:00So the estimate now of the magnitude is at 3.8.

01:03It's really quite common for an initial estimate

01:07of an earthquake's magnitude to get revised

01:09after the first few minutes as we get more data.

01:12So yes, as you said, this occurred kind of just offshore

01:16the Southern Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire area.

01:20It was at a depth of about eight miles

01:23below the Earth's surface.

01:24And as you know, we don't have,

01:27earthquakes are not an everyday occurrence in New England,

01:30but we do have a record of small to moderate earthquakes

01:34in this region.

01:35And in the hours since,

01:37what have we learned about this event?

01:38Were there any aftershocks today

01:40and could more occur in the coming days?

01:43Yeah, so, so far we have not recorded any aftershocks yet.

01:48So the USGS aftershock forecast tells us

01:52that there's roughly a 13% chance

01:55of a magnitude three or greater aftershock

01:58in the next week.

01:59So it's certainly something that folks who live in the area

02:02that felt shaking with the event this morning

02:05should be aware of,

02:06but the most likely scenario is that we might get,

02:09you know, a few small aftershocks.

02:12And so something certainly to be aware of,

02:15that's the most likely scenario.

02:17And we understand that last week,

02:19there was a little bit of buzz in the New York Metro

02:20when a smaller earthquake occurred near Paramus, New Jersey

02:24with a 2.4 magnitude.

02:26Is there any link or maybe a relative comparison

02:29to today's New England earthquake between the two?

02:33Yeah, that's right.

02:33And it's always natural to ask

02:35when a couple of earthquakes make the news

02:37kind of right in a row,

02:39the way we've seen over the last few days,

02:41are these related?

02:42And, you know, the answer in this case

02:44is they're not directly related.

02:46Now it is true, again,

02:48that we do have a kind of normal background level

02:53of small to moderate seismicity here in New England

02:56and in the Northeast US more broadly.

02:58So, you know, we can always expect

03:01there are occasionally going to be

03:02these small to moderate earthquakes.

03:04We actually, we had a small earthquake in Connecticut

03:07a few weeks ago as well.

03:09So no direct link, but they are, you know,

03:12both indications of what we already know,

03:14that this area is prone

03:17to occasional small to moderate earthquakes

03:19and that we should all be aware of that risk

03:21for those of us who live here.

03:23Once again, we've been speaking with seismologist,

03:25professor and chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences

03:28at Yale University, Maureen Long.

03:30Thanks so much for joining us, Maureen.

03:32Great to be with you, thank you.

03:34All right, thank you, Maureen.

03:35All seismologists seem to be the voice of reason sometimes.

03:38Yeah.

03:39You know, on social media,

03:39people get unglued over this kind of thing.

03:41So it's always good to have a steady voice there

03:43and put this into perspective with some scientific backing.

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