The U.S. Geological Survey says there was a small earthquake just after noon today in the Cape Elizabeth area. State Geologist Robert Marvinney says the magnitude 2.0 tremor happened just offshore.
“For people right in the Cape Elizabeth area a shallow earthquake like that will generate a fair amount of rumbling and people rumbling and they feel it,” says Marvinney.
He says reports that people heard a boom are consistent with this type of quake.
“The energy when it travels along the surface of the crust can generate noise like that, particularly if you’re right near the epicenter,” Marvinney says.
But Marvinney says a magnitude 2.0 quake isn’t strong enough to cause damage. He says there are a dozen or more magnitude 2.0 quakes in Maine every year.
