Upon Further Review It Wasn’t An Earthquake, Here’s What It Was Instead

CONNECTICUT — What geologists had first reported earlier this week as a rare Connecticut earthquake has now been determined to be something much more mundane.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally sourced that horrific noise heard around 2:30 p.m. in Plainville on Tuesday as a 2.0 magnitude quake, but later backtracked.

Plainville Fire Marshal Ron Diver confirmed the noise originated with a controlled blast at the Tilcon quarry in Plainville — and it was no surprise. The original demolition was scheduled for before noon, Diver said, and was then re-scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

"And then from 2:30 until almost midnight, I took 57 phone calls for complaints about the blasting," Diver told Patch. "Some people knew it was a blast. Some people thought it was a tree down. Some people thought it was a car (slamming) into their garage."

Diver said residents have always been able to contact Tilcon to be placed on a blast day notification list, but the Town of Plainville is already at work developing a better communications solution.

"We're not quite sure where whether it's an internet listserv, some sort of schedule that can be populated on a website, but there's some talk in the works between the town manager, myself and the end administration at Silicon," Diver said.

The original USGS intensity map officially classified the quake as "weak," and no damage was reported.

The 1.8 magnitude quake in Essex Village just before 1:30 p.m. on Monday is still on the books, however. Its effects were felt in Deep River and Stamford.

At least one other earthquake was felt in Connecticut in 2025. In January, an earthquake was reported in Moodus, a village in East Haddam.

A 1.8 magnitude earthquake was reported at 10:13 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18. No damage was reported, according to WTNH News 8.

On November 20, 2024 a 2.3 magnitude earthquake was also reported in Moodus, according to the United States Geological Survey. That same week, a 1.3 magnitude earthquake was reported in Stamford.

While earthquakes have been known to occur in different parts of Connecticut, the state is best known for its seismic activity near Moodus, according to the Northeast States Emergency Consortium.

Notably, an earthquake in 1791 was recorded in Moodus with a magnitude between 4.4 and 5, the NESEC said. The event was felt from New York City up to Albany, and up to Boston in the northeast.

with Vincent Salzo