Small earthquake in Maine felt all over New England

Updated at 8:05 a.m. Oct. 17

PORTLAND, Maine Patrons of a pizza parlor near the epicenter of an earthquake in southern Maine may not have known what was happening. But the shaking building was enough to send all 20 of them skedaddling outside.

"It was loudest bang you ever heard in your life. We actually thought it was an explosion of some type," said Jessica Hill, owner of Waterboro House of Pizza. "The back door and door to the basement blew open," she said.

The earthquake that hit southern Maine Tuesday night and was felt in New England states as far away as Connecticut caused no apparent damage or injuries, but it rattled residents throughout the region.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 4.0 magnitude quake hit around 7:12 p.m. and its epicenter, about 3 miles west of Hollis Center, Maine, was about 3 miles deep. That location is about 20 miles west of Portland. The quake was first estimated to be 4.6 magnitude but was later downgraded.

In Saco, Sue Hadiaris said, "The whole house shook. ...It was very unnerving because you could feel the floor shaking. There was a queasy feeling."

Afterward, Hadiaris called her 15-year-old niece in Falmouth to make sure she was safe. "She said, 'We can cross that off our bucket list. We've lived through an earthquake,'" Hadiaris said.

Earthquakes are rare in New England but they're not unheard of.

In 2006 there was a series of earthquakes around Maine's Acadia National Park. The strongest earthquake recorded in Maine occurred in 1904 in the Eastport area, near the state's eastern border with Canada according to the Weston Observatory at Boston College. It had an estimated magnitude of 5.7 to 5.9.

The Seabrook Station nuclear plant, about 63 miles away in New Hampshire, declared an unusual event — the lowest of four emergency classifications — but said it was not affected. The plant has been offline for refueling.

"There has been no impact at all to the plant from the earthquake and our refueling maintenance activities have not been affected," said Alan Griffith, spokesman for Next EnergyEra Seabrook Station.

Jim Van Dongen, public information officer for the New Hampshire Department of Safety said New Hampshire 911 got about 1,000 calls in the first hour after the quake, but they later dropped off. He said no major damage was reported.

Brief, but noticeable shaking was felt in downtown Boston and the surrounding area.

Edward Conti, who lives in a four-story apartment building in Cambridge, Mass., he was watching television when "it sounded like a car crash. Then there was another boom-boom. It was no small thing." Conti said there was no damage.

In Melrose, just north of Boston, Peter Ward said the shaking he felt seemed to last about four seconds. "It felt like a big gust of wind shaking the house. I don't want to overstate it, but the glass did rattle a little," he said.

Lynette Miller, a spokeswoman for the Maine Emergency Management Agency, said her dogs started barking several seconds before the quake on Tuesday. "It was several seconds of good shaking but nothing falling down," Miller said from her home in Readfield, about 60 miles north of Portland.

In Portland, Abbie Miller had just turned on the aging furnace in her house for the first time this season. "An hour later, things started shaking and it sounded almost like a train coming through. I thought my furnace was going to blow," she said.

East Coast quakes are rarely strong enough to be felt over a wide area. A quake of magnitude 5.8 on Aug. 23, 2011, was centered in Virginia and felt all along the coast, including in New York City and Boston. Experts say the region's geology can make the effects felt in an area up to 10 times larger than quakes of similar size on the West Coast.

[MichaelG93]

You have to understand that many people from Maine have not felt an earthquake of that magnitude. Just because it was lower on the scale does not mean that it still didn't worry many people. Considering it made national news must mean it was of some importance. There were cell phone towers which were not working in many areas which worried many people as well. I am only 19 years old but, in that time I have never felt anything like it. Sorry our little "tremor" ruined your Dancing with the Stars and Debate, we'll try and time it better next time.

[mainegirl2]

I live 15 miles from epicenter and I was at work at the time the earthquake hit. I work for an answering service and I was on the phone when it hit. At first I thought a truck hit the building or there was an explosion nearby. It was a loud deep boom! And then the whole building was vibrating and shaking. It felt like it lasted about 20 secs. I knew it was an earthquake. We started getting a lot of calls from people thinking their burners blew up. It moved a 100lb propane tank 6 inches away from the building that I work in. And to JOLHOFT1 Maine doesn't get tremors every day or every year that you can feel,we occasionally have a local event where only a small area is effected, so for most of us in who have lived our entire lives here, this was the 1st time they felt one.

[gregd1983]

jolhoft1... read the reports, our geo is much different than the soft west coast geo, we have all granite ! so the 4.0 was more loud than felt. Most people thought it was there furnaces/chimney fire they feel about the same, maybe this was a little worse.

[jolhoft1]

Earthquake? C'mon guys, at most it's a tremor....live with it! News must be hard to find today, so you report on this? There are thousands of tremors all over the U.S. every day....

[kbbpll]

4.0! Run for your lives! I'm waiting for a news story about a freight train scaring people, and all they can say is "it sounded like an earthquake".