Small Quake Rocks Maine; No Injuries
October 03, 2006
A small earthquake sent rocks tumbling onto a road in Acadia National Park and burst water pipes, but no injuries were reported, officials said Tuesday.
The earthquake struck about 8 p.m. Monday and could be felt in Bangor and Augusta. It had a preliminary magnitude of 3.9, said John Ebel, director of the Weston Observatory at Boston College.
‘That’s a good shake to the people who felt it. It would feel like heavy truck passing by to people in Bar Harbor and 20 or 30 miles out,’ Ebel said.
Part of Acadia’s Park Loop Road was closed due to a rockslide. Some power outages also resulted, said Jeff Chamberlain, dispatcher for the Bar Harbor Police Department.
Maine has experienced a recent string of small earthquakes following a long period of seismic inactivity. People on Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park, experienced a magnitude 3.5 quake on Sept. 22. Before that, a magnitude 3.8 earthquake was recorded in the northern part of the state on July 14.
‘By contrast, the 1980s were much more active,’ Ebel said, citing quakes in eastern Maine in 1984 and in western Maine four years later.
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