Wilmington Earthquake Goes Unnoticed Early Wednesday Morning

While you slept, the earth shook. Not very much, but enough to get the attention of John Ebel.

Ebel, the Director of Seismology at Boston College’s Weston geophysical research observatory, reported an earthquake in Wilmington Wednesday at 1:07 a.m. that registered at a magnitude of 0.8.

According to Ebel, the location of the earthquake was 2.5 miles north/northeast of the center of Wilmington, mapped on the observatory’s website having started near Avalon Drive.

“It was just a tiny, little earthquake,” said Ebel. “I haven’t received any direct reports of anyone in the epicenter feeling it, although that may change as word gets out.”

Earthquakes occur only a few times per year in the area, said Ebel, who added that the events are unpredictable and tend to scatter around.

“We get earthquakes periodically in eastern Massachusetts, so in that sense it wasn’t particularly unusual,” said Ebel. “But in this location, we haven’t seen anything before.”