Small earthquake rattles New Hampshire, just north of Massachusetts border

A magnitude 2.1 earthquake hit overnight in New Hampshire, not far from the Massachusetts border.

It happened at about 1:45 a.m. Friday, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. The epicenter was in the town of Milford, which is located in between Nashua and Manchester. The depth of the earthquake was about 5.4 miles underground.

There were nearly 100 "Did You Feel It?" reports on the USGS website. In Massachusetts, a map showed that shaking was felt in the  Townsend and Pepperell areas, and even just to the west of Boston.

There were no immediate reports of damage. On social media, one resident reported a "shockwave-like noise" at the time of the earthquake, while another said the shaking woke them up. 

According to Boston College's Weston Observatory, earthquakes with a magnitude between 2.0 and 3.0 can be felt near the epicenter, but they don't cause damage.

The last notable earthquake to hit New England was in January 2025. That was a magnitude 3.8 earthquake centered off York Harbor, Maine, and it was felt in Boston, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. 

A Weston Observatory senior scientist said that was a "once-in-every-five-years kind of earthquake." 

According to the USGS, the largest known earthquake to ever hit New England was in 1638 when a magnitude 6.5 quake hit Vermont or New Hampshire. A magnitude 5.8 earthquake off Cape Ann "caused severe damage to the Boston waterfront" in 1755, the agency said. The last earthquake causing moderate damage in the region was in 1940 from a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in central New Hampshire.