Earthquake Occurrence Disclosure In Historical Environmental Site Assessments Performed In New England

The New England Seismic Network (NESN) operated by Boston College and MIT with funding<br>from the United State Geological Survey (USGS) has documented approximately 1000<br>earthquakes in the six New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New<br>Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine between late 1600’s to the 1990’s. Compared to other regions<br>of the United States, the apparent large number and frequency of reported earthquakes in New<br>England are low.<br>Disclosure of the potential for an earthquake to occur in New England is frequently absent in a<br>Historical Environmental Site Assessment (HESA) for commercial/industrial properties. Likely<br>reasons for this omission are the low frequency of occurrence and magnitude of earthquakes and<br>the public’s perspective of “there are no earthquakes in New England”. Examination of<br>earthquake occurrence data reported on the NESN website for the years between the late 1600’s<br>to 1990’s relative to the frequency and intensity of reported earthquake occurrence is evaluated<br>from an environmental consultant’s perspective. This information is readily accessible and<br>should be incorporated into HESA reports as useful information to a client even after completing<br>a New England HESA.