Here’s Why Maine Shouldn’t Ignore a Recent NJ Earthquake

I remember my first earthquake.

Luckily, I've never experienced anything major. Most Mainers haven't. Unless they spent time living somewhere else, where there's more activity. In the 70's I remember waking up, not because I felt the quake, but because my whole family was out of bed at 2:00am, walking around the house and wondering what just happened.

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I remember one from my adulthood, when I lived on the peninsula in Portland. My rickety old apartment building felt like it might topple right over, as I was up on the third floor, where it was presumably felt the hardest in the house. Fun fact: I was initially annoyed, because I thought the couple living below me was just being...ahem... *athletic*.

A recent New Jersey quake should probably have us slightly alarmed.

Back in April, there was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake in Tewksbury Township, which is considered part of greater New York City. It wasn't necessarily a big deal. In fact, at its epicenter, the effects were quite small. However, it was felt much more acutely in other places, even as far away as here in Maine, according to SciTechDaily.com.

The reason seismologists are concerned, isn't specifically how strong it was, but the fact it occurred on a previously undiscovered fault. That's slightly alarming for a couple reasons. First off, nobody knew it was there, obviously. But also, it makes researchers wonder what else may be lurking underneath. Are there more to come? Will they grow more powerful?

Was there substantial damage?

Well, that's another Scooby Doo mystery. Existing models indicate that the damage should've been much stronger. But most people near it reported very little, and locations further away made stronger reports. Like NYC itself. It was quite strong, but little damage. And again, we felt it up here in Maine.

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The strongest quake we've ever had in Maine was in 1904. It was just under 6.0, and was near Eastport. Does all this mean we could start seeing stronger quakes, or at least perhaps more often? Well, let's not forget that this fault was completely undiscovered before this. What it might mean for the future, is that all bets are off. We'll see...