Earthquake felt in Boston was centered off Maine

CBS News

28-01-2025

BOSTON - An earthquake felt in Boston, Massachusetts on Monday was centered off York Harbor, Maine according to the United States Geological Survey. It was also felt in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, a USGS map showed.
What time was the earthquake today?
The earthquake with a magnitude of 3.8 happened at 10:22 a.m. It was initially reported as a magnitude of 4.1 and then 3.9.
"This is like a once-in-every-five-years kind of earthquake," John Ebel, a senior scientist with the Weston Observatory at Boston College, told WBZ-TV.
The depth of the earthquake was more than eight miles underground, according to the USGS. There was no tsunami threat to New England, the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center reported.
"We don't sit on any active fault lines," WBZ-TV executive weather producer Terry Eliasen said. "But again for our area [it] is really significant."
No reports of earthquake damage in Massachusetts
Shaking could be felt for a few seconds in the area, as well as in the WBZ-TV newsroom in Boston.
USGS shake map, where the earthquake was felt today pic.twitter.com/zDv95KNM70
— Terry Eliasen (@TerryWBZ) January 27, 2025
"My house shook pretty good," said WBZ-TV anchor David Wade, who lives just west of Boston. "It went on for what felt like a good five or 10 seconds."
Anna Fletcher was working from her home office in Milton when her house started shaking.
"It shook probably four to five seconds pretty significantly, and I stood up to check things out but by that time everything was over and the dog started barking," Fletcher told WBZ-TV. "Your mind goes to anything but an earthquake when you live in New England."
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said it received reports of shaking felt in the state, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
"Remember, during an earthquake: drop, cover and hold on for safety," the agency said.
Will there be earthquake aftershocks in Boston?
Ebel said "there certainly will be aftershocks that will be recorded seismically."
"If the aftershocks get to be, you know, magnitude 2.8, 3,0, or 3.1, let's say those will be felt probably by the people in the North Shore area of Massachusetts as well as coastal New Hampshire and south coastal Maine," he said.
Last year, a 4.8 earthquake centered in New Jersey was felt in parts of Massachusetts.
Earthquake shakes Maine
Police and fire scanner audio from York County, Maine captured the initial response to the earthquake.
"We're not sure what's going on. We're getting calls from all over town about an explosion," a dispatcher can be heard saying.
"We had a very large shake here at the station as well," another person says.
Residents in York say it was a frightening experience.
"I was standing right here, and it was 'boom,' and then instantly, all at once, the whole house was shaking. And I looked up and the lights were swinging," Cindy McKenna said, "I picked up and called 911, then I just ran outside."
"I was vacuuming, and all the sudden, it sounded like a truck or an airplane engine or something, I mean, and the house shook," said Gene Raymond.
"A couple of things fell off my shelf and we literally thought something exploded, that's what it sounded like, the building shook," Dawn Milbury said
Nancy Begert was working at an OB/GYN office in Portland, Maine when the building started to shake.
"We all kind of looked at each other, like, what's happening? And then when it was done, we said, 'I think that was an earthquake," Begert said. "One of the girls in another room had something fall off the desk, but no damage."
Home damage after earthquake
The Maine Emergency Management Agency was asking residents not to call 911 unless there was an emergency. But they did ask residents to make sure they check for any damage to their homes.
"That's the standard thing you should do after an earthquake. Check your house, make sure nothing cracked. If you have a hook up of some sort of flammable heating source make sure you check that to make sure nothing was damaged" Emergency Management Director, Nicole Pastana said.