Dozens of earthquakes hit unlikely state of Maine in unusual seismic swarm

Friday, May 06, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: earthquakes, seismic activity, health news

(NaturalNews) Last weekend, a mysterious swarm of earthquake events struck the US state of Maine in what seismic experts have dubbed a "microquake" event. A region not typically prone to earthquakes, portions of Maine allegedly feel a small shake or two in an average year as a result of earth plate movement, but in recent days there have been dozens of shaking events, which has stirred up area residents. And though geologists insist that the earthquakes are nothing to worry about, some locals have expressed concern that the quake swarm might be an atypical precursor to something worse.

According to a recent report in Bangor Daily News, many area residents living between and around the towns of Belfast and Bucksport where the quakes hit, have been calling authorities with reports of sounds resembling "gunshots and shotgun blasts," as well as reports of their homes shaking and pictures and items falling off walls and shelves. The events have been so strange, in fact, that many residents have been reporting them as explosions rather than earthquakes, implying that there is something uniquely unusual about them compared to normal earthquakes.

"We'll continue to investigate," said Searsport Police Chief Dick LaHaye, who has been dealing with many of these calls in recent days, to Bangor Daily News. "There's obviously something going on. It's outside of the police purview at this point, but we'll continue to respond to any and all calls that come in."

Henry Berry, a bedrock geologist from the Maine Geological Survey, told the paper during the phone interview that the quakes were basically inconsequential, and that they were hardly noticeable. But based on the accounts from actual people who felt the quakes ,and who witnessed the shaking and damage caused by them, such a dismissal is hard to swallow at face value.

Sources for this story include:

http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/05/03/ne...