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Did Acton Actually Get an Earthquake?
According to an area scientist; the Acton, Boxborough and Littleton areas are sporadically active when it comes to earthquakes.
ACTON, MA—Reports of a very small magnitude 1.3 earthquake surfaced late Tuesday night, but there were no initial reports of the earthquake actually being felt.
However, John Ebel Ph.D., a Senior Research Scientist at the Weston Observatory and a professor of Geophysics at Boston College told Patch that a magnitude .9 earthquake was reported in West Acton at 8:47 p.m. Sunday evening. Ebel told Patch that a colleague of his and his wife, who live near the epicenter, actually heard the earthquake.
“The Acton, Boxborough and Littleton areas are actually sporadically active,”Ebel told Patch.”We tend to get a small earthquake once every three-to-five years.”
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Ebel said that the New England area tends to see at least six “felt” (small) earthquakes per year, but that the area hasn’t had a damaging earthquake since 1940. Ebel told Patch that the activity Acton sees will not become significant.
“I always tell people for that what they get in California in one year, it would take 100 years in New England,” Ebel said.
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