New Maps Show 'Reasonable Chance' of Damaging Earthquake

New maps outlining earthquake risk and hazard across the country show Massachusetts with an increased risk of a damaging earthquake.

The latest updated national seismic hazard maps from the U.S. Geological Survey released earlier this month show a portion of Massachusetts, including most of the North Shore and Merrimack Valley, as being in the middle of seven risk levels for a damaging earthquake. Also included in that risk level is most of southern and central New Hampshire and parts of southern and coastal Maine. Much of central and western Massachusetts, plus the South Coast and Cape Cod, are one risk level lower.

In all, the risk of an earthquake has gone up for about a third of the country and has decreased for about one-tenth, according to a report by WCVB-TV.

The good news? No New England state is on the list of states “at highest risk of experiencing damaging ground breaking from an earthquake,” according to Emergency Management magazine.

See the updated report here.