Small Local Earthquake Observed on November 8th

Shortly after 9 AM EST on Sunday, November 8th, 2020 a small 3.6 magnitude earthquake shook parts of southeastern New England. The epicenter was about 6.2 miles below ground under Buzzard’s Bay and just offshore of Bliss Corner, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The earthquake was recorded on the seismographs at the Blue Hill Observatory and other locations in the area as shown in the figure above.

The P-waves, or compressional waves, travel in the direction of propagation from the epicenter of the earthquake and generally arrive first as they did in this instance. The S-waves, or shear waves, cause rock to move perpendicular to the direction of propagation and generally travel more slowly than P-waves.