A year after that earthquake, how close is the south coast to another earthquake?

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Dartmouth – A year ago, southern Massachusetts was united in asking: What the hell is this? truck pass? cauldron explode? Someone moving furniture?

It only took a few minutes for the answer to become clear: an earthquake. Biggest New England hair in over half a century: 3.6 on the Richter scale.

It was not a geographically “major” earthquake. California felt at least two earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 just last week. But about these parts, where we are relatively far from the fault of tectonic plate lines, it was worth posting.

This time-stamped seismometer from the Weston Observatory on November 8, 2020, shows an earthquake with an epicenter south of Dartmouth in Buzzards Bay, occurring at 9:10 a.m. The effects were widely felt in nearby Fall River and New Bedford, and detected across New England.

The epicenter was traced to Buzzards Bay, just south of Dartmouth, at approximately 9:10 a.m. on Sunday, November 8, 2020.

The earthquake’s effects were felt throughout New England, but were felt most acutely around New Bedford and Fall River, just miles from the epicenter. In Fall River, police received numerous calls regarding minor damage inside homes, and some cases where some items fell off shelves.

Has there been an earthquake since then?

But now a year has passed. How close is the South Coast to experiencing something like an earthquake on Sunday morning?

Well, first, we have to mention one of the aftershocks of that earthquake. Two weeks later, on November 22, 2020, around 1 a.m., the USGS recorded a 2.0-magnitude earthquake that struck in roughly the same area as the one on November 8. But, many people have reported feeling this, some as far away as Brockton and North Smithfield, RI

But besides that aftershock, what is the most powerful earthquake that has ever occurred in Massachusetts? How close are we to feeling anything like this?

This map, from the following website Zuraketrack.com, shows the largest earthquakes recorded in southern New England last year, including the earthquake and aftershocks that occurred south of Dartmouth in November 2020. While other earthquakes have occurred nearby since then, None of them matched the magnitude of the earthquake, the South Coast 3.6 earthquake on November 8, 2020.

According to the Boston College Weston Observatory’s website, 19 earthquakes have been recorded in New England since those aftershocks.

Only in Massachusetts, there have been six earthquakes of at least 1.5 magnitudes in the year since our aftershocks, according to an earthquake website.

The story continues

The largest: In addition, the largest earthquake felt in Massachusetts since then actually occurred in Maine. Well, off its coast, in the Gulf of Maine. A 2.4-magnitude earthquake occurred about 30 kilometers off the coast from York, Maine, on March 19 and was felt in northeastern Massachusetts.

Closest: Our closest earthquake, in terms of distance, that has occurred since then is a 2.0 earthquake about 35 kilometers east of the eastern tip of Long Island, placing it south of Rhode Island. It happened on September 19.

So the earth is still moving under our feet around these parts. Not often nor violently along the San Andreas Fault. But often enough to ask yourself once in a while: Was this just a truck going by?

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: A year after the earthquake, how close is SouthCoast to another earthquake?

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