WESTON, MASS. (WHDH) - Many Massachusetts residents reported feeling Monday’s 3.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Maine.
Data collected at the Boston College Weston Observatory showed seismic shaking at 10:22 a.m.
“When [the seismograph] goes crazy like that, then I know that there’s an earthquake. When I saw this earthquake, I knew it wasn’t small. I knew people would’ve felt it,” said Dr. John Ebel, senior research scientist at the observatory.
Ebel has been studying earthquakes in Weston since 1981.
“This is a once-in-five-year, on average, earthquake in New England itself. The last one of this size was about five years ago down along the south shore,” he said.
Hull resident Heather MacDonald’s home security camera caught the moment the earthquake hit.
“I thought there was like a big truck going by or I thought somebody hit the house, but I didn’t hear a bang or anything like that,” she said. “All of a sudden, the bureau that I was standing next to was shaking a little bit, and my husband was like, ‘Oh my God, something’s happening.'”
Some Massachusetts residents, including Pedro Resendes, were surprised.
“It’s pretty scary if you actually felt it, pretty disturbing, especially in this area where we don’t see anything like it,” Resendes said.
Others didn’t feel a thing.
“I was sleeping through it so I had no idea it was happening today. But, my brother did tell my mom and she told me and I was confused. I was like, ‘Since when do earthquakes happen here?'” said Niko Michelides, who lives in Cambridge.
Ebel said he has spent his life monitoring seismic events and that they won’t stop anytime soon.
“We do live in a seismically active area. We have had damaging earthquakes historically, in the past, and there’s every reason to believe we will have damaging earthquakes in the future,” he said.
Rather than being concerned, residents should be prepared, Ebel said.
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