Abstract
Neotectonic activity in Maine is defined by a pattern of recurrent seismicity and secular changes in sea level. Earthquakes have historically been experienced, and continue to occur at several discrete locations in Maine, especially near the city of Eastport. Earthquakes also occur in a less concentrated band subparallel to the present coast. While slumping of modern and Pleistocene muddy sediment is observed near the trace of mapped bedrock faults, no ruptures of bedrock have yet been associated with specific earthquakes. Sea level has fluctuated profoundly in the western Gulf of Maine, and the rate of sea-level change has apparently not been uniform around the margins of the Gulf of Maine during the late Quaternary. Maine has experienced the greatest amount of postglacial drowning and emergence of any locality in the area, although work is needed to better document this. Mareographs indicate that eastern Maine is undergoing more rapid contemporary submergence than localities to the south and west, and that this may result from crustal subsidence in the Eastport area. The simplest explanation for neotectonic activity in the area involves vertical crustal movement as a consequence of the collapse of a “peripheral bulge” which formed during the last ice advance. Continued movement associated with bulge migration, as well as with other sources of stress, is accommodated by earthquakes in areas of weak bedrock and old fault zones.
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Anderson, W.A., Kelley, J.T., Borns, H.W., Belknap, D.F. (1989). Neotectonic Activity in Coastal Maine: United States of America. In: Earthquakes at North-Atlantic Passive Margins: Neotectonics and Postglacial Rebound. NATO ASI Series, vol 266. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2311-9_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2311-9_12
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