Residual Earthquakes No Stranger To Connecticut

An earthquake originating in Virginia caused a flurry of activity across the East Coast today.  However, it wasn’t the first time the state has experienced such a residual effect from a distant tremor.

According to the United States Geological Survey’s summary of Connecticut’s earthquake history, at least four other earthquakes originating elsewhere on the East Coast rippled on to this state in the past several hundred years. Numerous minor earthquakes have also struck the state, with the most serious one occurring in 1791 in East Haddam. In this quake, chimneys and stone walls were damaged in two severe jolts and in Clinton, about 12 miles away, “a Capt. Benedict, walking the deck of his vessel, then lying in the harbor at that place, observed the fish to leap out of the water in every direction as far as his eyes could reach."

Today’s earthquake, reportedly measuring 5.8 or 5.9 in magnitude on the Richter scale, caused the evacuation of buildings in Washington, D.C. and some damage to the National Cathedral, according to the New York Times. A nuclear power plant was taken offline, Amtrak service was delayed, and phone systems were taxed by numerous calls.

In Connecticut, the stadium at Yale University hosting the New Haven Open was evacuated. The reported no damage in this area. At the state level, “Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection staff is at the Emergency Operations Center as a precaution, but at this point, there have been no reports of injury or damage,” Gov. Dannel Malloy declared. The center was closed at 4:30 p.m.

Besides the 1791 earthquake, tremors also originated near Hartford in 1837, 1840, and 1925; New Haven in 1858; Stamford in 1953; and southern Connecticut in 1968.

One curious incident struck New London directly in August of 1935. A “strange quivering” hit the city around 4 a.m. on Aug. 9 of that year, according to the New York Times archive. The cause was “laid to ‘rolling quake’ or a meteor.”

Other earthquakes that have occurred outside the region and been felt in Connecticut, according to the USGS:

• An earthquake near Three Rivers, Quebec on Feb. 5, 1663, which caused “moderate effects” in parts of the state.
• Tremors centering in Massachusetts in November of 1727 and November of 1755, which were “felt strongly” in Connecticut.
• An earthquake in November of 1935 near Timiskaming, Ontario, which affected one million square miles of Canada and the United States and cracked windowpanes in Cornwall.
• A quake near Massena, N.Y. in September of 1944, which had “mild effects” in Hartford, Marion, New Haven, and Meriden.