‘Swarm’ of earthquakes felt in central Washington County

This story was initially printed by the Machias Valley Information Observer.

As many as 12 small earthquakes have been reported in central Washington County up to now a number of weeks, constituting a “swarm,” based on Maine Geological Survey’s Henry Berry. 

Native lore says the earthquakes are attributable to a fault line operating below Centerville, however that’s solely partially true, says Berry.  

“There are some components of the world which have energetic faults which have been recognized, the place earthquakes are occurring [regularly],” stated Berry, citing locations like Alaska, Japan, and California. “That’s not the case within the state of Maine.”

As an alternative of 1 lengthy fault line situated below Centerville, like California’s San Andreas Fault, Washington County’s latest earthquakes are attributable to rocks breaking randomly contained in the earth’s crust. Every break is technically a fault. 

Scientists know that Maine doesn’t have an energetic fault line, due to the work of a number of seismologists who got here to review Maine earthquakes. 

“The seismologists got here once we first obtained an honest array of seismometers in about 1975 to review the place [Maine’s earthquakes] are and see if we might relate them to any of the mapped faults,” stated Berry. “They have been disenchanted, and so they principally went again to California, the place they’re all from.” 

“That doesn’t imply we don’t have earthquakes. It simply means we are able to’t see a correlation between the energetic earthquakes we now have now and the outdated faults we now have on the map,” stated Berry. (See the state’s checklist of Maine earthquakes right here.)

The Washington County tremors should not harmful, ranging in magnitude from 1.1 to three.0 on the Richter scale, however they might train seismologists one thing about how earthquakes type. The power to detect earthquakes with magnitudes as small as 1.1 is comparatively latest, stated Berry.

“It is a new form of knowledge that we haven’t had earlier than as a result of they’re so small, and if we get so a lot of them in a single small place, there’s a possibility for the seismologists to research these and get a greater thought of the method producing these little swarms.”

Anybody who senses or hears an earthquake can assist seismologists by reporting it to the U.S. Geological Survey by means of their on-line type discovered right here. Generally, individuals can detect earthquakes so small that they’re hidden throughout the seismology knowledge. A report can assist scientists discover them.

“In the event that they know what time it was, they will find the weak sign within the knowledge,” stated Berry. “The seismographs are choosing up much more than we find out about. Citizen science is a useful approach for individuals to be concerned on this.”

An earthquake swarm additionally passed off in Milo earlier this 12 months, and one other was detected in Searsport two years in the past.