Rare moderate earthquake in Maine today

Disaster Report: M 4.0 moderate rare earthquake shakes Maine today.
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Maine _earthquake_2012_epicenter_map
Original Post: Natural Disasters List October 16, 2012
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Did you feel this earthquake? - Share your experiences

December 4, 2012
Based on an increasing number of visitors joining us from Maine, we believe that an earthquake was felt. Most of the visitors are online from Buxton, Waterboro area. When you are one of the people who experienced this earthquake, kindly report in comment section or,
Please fill this form

Update: M 2.3 minor earthquake hit Maine with epicenter located 6 kilometers south of Lake Arrowhead near the town of Waterboro.

Update
Felt reports as received by Disaster-Report.Com through felt report form.

Laurie from Maine:
"I live about 46 miles north of where the epicenter was located. The tremors I felt from this earthquake made me nervous enough to panic a bit because I had never felt tremors from an earthquake before. At first I thought it was just a train or possibly a semi truck going down the road. But then the rumbling got more and more intense. Then everything started shaking mildly and glasses (among other things) started rattling. It was a good 10-20 seconds long. I knew what had just happened before it was even announced nationally that we just had an earthquake in Maine."

Christopher Bickford from Southampton:
"A little after 7pm, last night, I was sitting on a couch watching the news, and I felt the couch shift back and forth. There was an up and down motion as well, which actually felt like the couch was picked up and dropped down, actually making a sound from the couch making contact with the floor after being lifted up by the floor and the floor dropping and the couch making contact as though the couch had been tossed up. That was the most startling!it seem to last maybe 10 seconds. I have been in earthquakes in California, Athens, Greece, and last year on Shelter Island, NY. This was stronger than the one I felt last year, that was centered in Virginia."

M 4.0 moderate earthquake shakes Maine today, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake's epicenter was located 5 km W of Hollis Center. It was 4.2 miles deep.

USGS put the Maine quake as high as 4.6 on the Moment Magnitude scale before recalibrating it down to 4.0.

Tremor in Maine today was well felt in New Hampshire and as far away as Massachusetts and Vermont.

Following USGS PAGER MAP, Moderate shaking of MMI V was felt by the people of Hollis Center, Lake Arrowhead, Waterboro, Dayton, Buxton and Limington. People of Concord, Manchester, Augusta, Nashua, Amherst, Chicopee, Easthampton, Holyoke, Northampton, South Hadley, Ware, Westfield, West Springfield, Longmeadow, Springfield, Greenfield, Athol, Fitchburg, Gardner, Groton, Leominster, Shrewsbury, Framingham, Acton, Concord, Andover, Methuen, Methuen and Lowell felt weak shaking of MMI III.

Moderate earthquakes are extremely rare for this region. Reports have shown that moderate earthquake takes place in New England once every few decades.
The strongest earthquake recorded in Maine occurred in 1904 (M 5.9) in the Eastport area, near the state's eastern border with Canada.

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast (Wikipedia).

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from today's Maine quake.
23:12 UTC (local time Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 07:12 PM @ epicenter )

Epicenter location

5 km W of Hollis Center, Maine
21 km NW of Biddeford, Maine
21 km NW of Saco, Maine
22 km WNW of West Scarborough, Maine

Maine earthquake history (Source Maine Geological Survey Department of Conservation):
Maine earthquakes from the historical record (1800-1975) with intensity VI or greater (from Ebel, 1989).

Date    Place                      Intensity           Comments
1904    Eastport area                   VII                  Largest earthquake in Maine (Reid, 1911)
1869    Passamaquoddy Bay?      VI                 Epicenter in Bay of Fundy or in Eastport area.
1857    Lewiston                           VI   
1905    Sabattus                           VI   
1912    Eastport                            VI   
1918    Bridgton/Norway               VI                   Magnitude 4.5
1928    Milo                                  VI                   Magnitude 4.5
1957    Portland                           VI                   Magnitude 4.2
1973    Bowmantown Twp.            VI                   Magnitude 4.8

If we look the data of significant Maine earthquakes from the modern record (1975-1992), no damages have been recorded (But was widely felt as today's Maine quake).

Date (local time)      Place           Magnitude    Intensity
April 17, 1979                Bath                     4.0                   V
May 29,1983                 Dixfield                  3.9                  V
Jan. 19, 1984                Machias                3.8                  IV
Dec. 28, 1988               Albion                   4.0                  IV
Sept. 15, 1994              Springfield            3.9                  IV
Feb. 25, 1999               Winslow-China      3.7

Maine earthquake prediction:
Estimated return times for earthquakes of different magnitudes in Maine.

Magnitude                    4.6    5.0     5.5     6.0    6.5    7.0
Return time (years)    24     52     138    363    955    2512
(±20 to 30%)

Related posts:
Rare earthquake hits New South Wales-Tremor felt after 43 years!
Rare earthquake in the Netherlands: Well felt in Groningen
Light earthquake in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
United states natural disasters list 2012


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  1. Tremor lasted more than 15 seconds.. felt such strong quake first in my life...It won't be back

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