Second Earthquake in 3 Days Rattles Residents Along the East Coast—A Look at Major Cities Sitting on a Fault Line

The East Coast was rocked by another earthquake on Monday—the second to hit within three days.

The 3.8-magnitude quake was centered in York, ME, about 44 miles south of Portland and located along the Atlantic Ocean, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The effects of the morning earthquake were felt all the way south to Boston and in areas like New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

The quake comes days after a 2.4-magnitude quake rocked Paramus, NJ, on Jan. 24, located about 22 miles outside of New York City.

That marked the second earthquake in New Jersey, after a 4.8-magnitude quake hit the Garden State in April 2024.

“Earthquakes, particularly in the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS), are relatively infrequent and difficult to predict,” Oliver S. Boyd, a research geophysicist with the USGS, tells Realtor.com®.

Fault or fiction

The USGS says that earthquakes along the East Coast are more of a mystery. That’s because scientists are unable to easily identify active faults.

There is a difference between faults and fault lines. The USGS explains a fault is a three-dimensional surface within the planet that might go up to the surface or may be completely buried. A fault line is where the fault cuts the Earth’s surface.

“The CEUS sits within the North American plate and doesn’t have well-developed faults that can be seen at the surface along plate boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault in California,” says Boyd.

The agency found that greater humidity in the eastern half of the country causes the processes to “happen faster so that evidence of fault lines is erased much faster than in the West.”

Cities along the Eastern Seaboard, like Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, aren’t prone to earthquakes.

“Being in the middle of a plate also makes earthquakes much less frequent,” Boyd points out.

In Maine, the state’s Geological Survey said Monday’s earthquake was tied for the third strongest since 1997. It’s not an uncommon occurrence, though.

“In 2024, Maine only experienced three earthquakes greater than M2 (all less than M3). Within 60 miles of today’s earthquake, they are a little more frequent and tend to occur in Central New Hampshire,” says Boyd.

He pointed out that a damaging earthquake within 60 miles of Monday’s quake is expected to occur on average every 500 years. The last damaging earthquake was near Bar Harbor, ME, in 1904.

Emergency officials said there were numerous 911 calls after the earthquake, but no reports of injuries or major damage.

“Having two earthquakes along the East Coast within a week of each other a couple of hundred miles apart is not unusual and not a cause for alarm,” Boyd adds.