Did you feel it?

3.8 magnitude quake off the Maine coast rattles New England

By Will Collette

I felt it around 10:30 AM this morning, a distinct shaking and swaying accompanied by the louvers in my closet door rattling. I wondered if it was another quake.

The US Geological Survey gave the exact time of the quake as 10:22 AM at its Maine epicenter. There were no apparent injuries or damage reported. If YOU felt it, you should use the USGS on-line form to report it to give their scientists more data to work with.

The epicenter was given as 10 km SE of York Harbor, Maine. It's marked with a star on the USGS map above.

These quakes have happened before. The first time I wrote about this was in 2011 soon after the launch of Progressive Charlestown. 

I continued reporting on quakes largely because we are only 20 miles downwind from the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant outside New London and the world saw what happened when a large quake in Japan caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant to melt down and spew radiation all over the planet.

On April 5th last year, we were rattled by a 4.8 magnitude quake centered in New Jersey. There has been some excellent research done on the origins and likely future of quakes in the Northeast, such as THIS ARTICLE.

One of the world's leading experts on tsunamis, one of the most damaging effects of earthquakes, is URI scientist Dr. Stephan Grilli. 

He has studied numerous sites around the world, including the leading threat to us, the La Palma region of the Canary Islands. Dr. Grilli notes a volcano or earthquake generated landslide “could create a mega-tsunami, with the potential to cause inundations along the East Coast of the United State, in some areas twice as large as a category five hurricane. It could mean major destruction along the East Coast.”

Now, to be clear, our tiny northeast quakes don't pose much of a threat and, according to researchers, are not likely to do so in the future. As for larger quakes, just because something can happen doesn't mean that it will.

That said, it is Charlestown's self-interest to pay attention to the Millstone nuclear power plant and on-going efforts to enforce their compliance with all safety measures. It is far from a sure thing that the federal nuclear energy regulators will continue to safeguard public health and safety in the current climate.