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EarthquakeUpdated: Oct 16, 2012 7:59 PM EDT

By WCAX News - bio | email
BURLINGTON -
A 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck west of Portland, Maine, on Tuesday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and the tremor reportedly was felt as far south as Boston.

The USGS said the quake struck at 7:12 p.m. ET and was centered about three miles west of Hollis Center, Maine. That's about 20 miles west of Portland. It was a shallow quake at 3.1 miles deep.

Reuters reported that the quake was felt in Boston, about 100 miles southwest of Portland.

There were no initial reports of damage or injuries.

That's an upclose and personal experience for students!! What a teachable moment!! I live in the Midwest but was in San Jose, CA with another teacher high up in a hotel during an earthquake. She was absolutely scared!! Is this an unusual occurrence in your area? How did students react?

What an interesting experience. (One that I don't wish for.) The closest experience I hope to have to this is our earthquake drill that is coming up at our school.

A great teaching tool is visiting the IRIS website listed below. It is an incredible organization that puts real working seismographs into classrooms around the country and the world. I am fortunate to have one in my classroom and it is constantly providing real world teachable moments for my students (and staff!). My absolute favorite to earthquake to date was catching the episode from the March 2011 Japan Earthquake/Tsunami. It is incredible the power that was released, and I was even able to warn friends and relatives BEFORE the news broke that a tsunami might be heading our way! Visit the website and explore. They also offer opportunities for teachers to train and put seismographs in their own classrooms. I can tell you this was one of the most worthwhile experiences I have experienced during my teaching career. http://www.iris.edu/hq/ssn/schools/realtime

When I watch the news and there is a story about an earthquake that occurred somewhere around the world, I think about how much information I learned after completing the SciPack titled Earth’s Changing Surface. This SciPack taught me a lot about earthquakes and I am very familiar with the lingo the scientists use during interviews. If you haven’t heard of that SciPack, I recommend it! I also found a couple of great websites that are kid friendly. The second website has a map of the world that shows the most recent earthquakes around the world. It is very interesting! There is also a link to read about earthquakes that occurred in the past. http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-earthquake.htm http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/

We had an earthquake in VA last year. It was felt in NC. Being able to reference the quake when we talk about plate tectonics and earthquakes definitely draws students to the materiel.

I teach in Chicago and last week there was a 3.6 earthquake in southwestern Illinois. There was a lot of buzz about it in the news up here so I had my earth science students write things they heard about this in their journal. We won't get to plate techtonics until about Feb, so I thought this would be a good way for them to remember this occurance.

Learn about the New Madrid fault line near St Louis Missouri and the earthquakes that hit the area in 1811-1812. Includes maps, documents, statistics, and photographs. Read about the history of Reelfoot Lake, a lake formed by the earthquake. There is a link to an eThemes Resource on Natural Disaster: Earthquakes. http://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/1658?locale=en

David, There is some general information on natural disasters here http://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/220?locale=en

I just got through that SciPack:Plate Tectonics, so this post is really interesting to me! I feel like I know something about why earthquakes happen now. I live on the San Andreas fault, so I should know more, but I had never looked into how they happen... just at the aftermath.

I love the USG Earthquakes website that shows in real time all the active earthquake sites around the world.
Carolyn

Real Time USGS webpage is great. When we cover earthquakes I assign each student an area of the world and each day they record any activity on an Excel spreadsheet. After about a month and a half, I then have then make a graph of their results. Not only does this review geography and graphs, but it does tend to get them interested in current events.

I had reason to utilize the USGS site about three weeks ago when I felt my office floor shaking for the first time in my life. This is monumental because I am a native of Chattanooga, TN - one of the least most likely places in the US to experience an earthquake. However, it just so happens that I had lived on the west coast for the last three years - in San Francisco and Seattle. The entire time we were there - nothing. Nadda. Zilch. The USGS confirmed that I wasn't insane when I felt the floor shaking - it was a 4.4 in Kentucky. I'm happy to report that I suspected an earthquake before moving on to the next most logical guess - paranormal activity. :)