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?
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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.