Maine
Maine has recorded 500-plus earthquakes. But you wouldn’t know it with most of them. – The Boston Globe
Many New Englanders were jolted Monday morning when they felt their homes and offices rattle and heard a brief rumble as a 3.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Maine startled communities up to 250 miles away.
The US Geological Survey said this quake, whose epicenter was about 7 miles from southern Maine’s coastal town of York, was the strongest earthquake to strike the Northeast since last April’s 4.8 shaker in northern New Jersey, which was also felt across must of Southern New England, including Boston.
Leslie Sonder, an associate professor of Earth sciences at Dartmouth College, said although today’s quake was 10 times smaller in amplitude and 30 times less in energy than the New Jersey earthquake, we could still feel the tremor because of our region’s rock composition formed over the span of a billion years.
“The cold rock structure underlying the East Coast means that seismic waves are transmitted much more efficiently,” said Sonder. “As a result, vibrations from even small earthquakes are felt over much larger areas than they would be in western states such as California.”
Maine, like the other New England states, is no stranger to earthquakes. Quakes actually occur multiple times per month in our region. Minor earthquakes, generally a magnitude 2 or lower on the Richter scale, which measures the strength of earthquakes, are barely noticeable as we go about our day, according to experts. There have been hundreds of these low-end shakes on record.
“The Weston Observatory records about three to five minor earthquakes per month, but once you get to the magnitude of 3, we usually capture one per year,” said John Ebel, a senior research scientist at Weston Observatory at Boston College. “(Today’s) event was closer to a 4.0 magnitude, which happens about one in five years,” which goes for any earthquake at a strength of 3 or higher on the Richter scale.
Since 1900, there have been more than 500 earthquakes recorded across the state of Maine or within instrument range, according to the USGS. Most of them range from a 1 to 3 magnitude.
“When you get to or above a 5.0 magnitude, which happens about every 100 years, that’s where damage occurs,” added Ebel. “In 1755, we had a 6.2 earthquake by Cape Ann, Mass. which did a lot of damage.”
The largest earthquake ever recorded in or off the coast of Maine was in 1907, where a 5.7-magnitude quake occurred in extreme Downeast Maine, within Passamaquoddy Bay.
However, there has been a notable cluster of earthquakes whose epicenters have lied between Cape Ann off the North Shore, stretching to southern Maine, where the earthquake on Monday occurred. Experts suggest that the strike-slip fault across a several fault lines in the Gulf of Maine may indicate that they’re becoming more fragile, with the developing concentration of epicenters focusing south of Portland and off the New Hampshire and Massachusetts coast.
Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.
Many Maine municipalities will open cooling centers this week with the National Weather Service issuing a variety of heat advisories covering the next few days.
The Maine DEP also issued an air quality alert for Wednesday with ground-level ozone expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
All of York County, interior Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, and the southern half of Oxford County will fall under an extreme heat warning from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday.
The warning calls for “dangerously hot conditions” that could feature heat index values of up to 110 degrees, with overnight lows only expected to fall into the 70s, according to the weather service’s office in Gray.
The rest of the state — save northern Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset counties — falls under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. However, the weather service has also placed much of the state under an extreme heat watch for Thursday.
Heat index values, which measure how hot it feels to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, are expected to reach up to 104 degrees during the heat advisory period, the weather service warns. They could reach 110 degrees Thursday, when the extreme heat watch is in effect.
Northern Oxford and Franklin counties, and central Somerset County, can expect a heat index value of up to 99 degrees Wednesday, according to the weather service.
The weather service advises people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms when possible, avoid extended periods in the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors. It also warns not to leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles, as “car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.”
Cooling Centers
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has also issued an air quality alert from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday along the coast from Kittery to Acadia National Park. The agency warns that ground-level ozone concentrations are expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Ozone levels may reach “moderate levels” further inland, according to the Maine DEP, including in all of Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, as well as parts of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.
Elevated ozone levels can pose a risk to children, older adults and people suffering from respiratory or heart diseases, according to the Maine DEP. Anyone exerting themselves outdoors may also experience health effects, which could include coughing, shortness of breath, throat irritation and mild chest pain.
Ozone levels were already climbing in southern New England on Tuesday, according to the Maine DEP, and winds are expected to bring those conditions to Maine on Wednesday.
The Maine DEP recommends that vulnerable populations avoid strenuous outdoor activities, keep windows closed, and circulate indoor air with fans or air conditioners. Those with asthma are also advised to keep quick-relief medication handy.
Particle pollution levels are also expected to be moderate across the state on Wednesday due to wildfire smoke, the Maine DEP said in its announcement Tuesday. Wildfires in Colorado, which have claimed the lives of three firefighters, had burned nearly 90,000 acres as of Tuesday, according to the Denver Post.
Maine could face up to $50 million in penalties next year due to errors in its payments for federal food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture find that Maine’s error rate last year was nearly 11%, the bulk of which were overpayments. That’s in line with the U.S. average. But starting in October of next year, states with error rates above 6% must cover a portion of the SNAP benefits.
Anna Korsen, executive director of Full Plates, Full Potential, said the overpayments aren’t fraud — they’re human error. She said this new cost-shifting policy enacted last year under the Trump administration further complicates the SNAP application process.
“Instead, we could make this program more accessible and more efficient,” Korsen said. “And that would reduce the number of errors and also ensure that Mainers who are eligible for SNAP have access to it.”
She’s urging Congress to delay or reverse the policy under the farm bill that’s currently under consideration.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services said it’s taking steps to reduce the error rate, including modernizing its systems and hiring an additional 40 eligibility specialists.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
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