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3 earthquakes hit off the coast of Rhode Island in one weekend

The earthquakes happened along the fault line near the Narragansett Pier.

Three earthquakes were reported within a day offshore from Rhode Island, the US Geological Survey reports. US Geological Survey

By Susannah Sudborough

May 15, 2022

Three earthquakes hit off the coast of Rhode Island within 24 hours over the weekend, and one was felt in Providence, The Boston Globe reported Sunday.

The first earthquake hit at 4:42 a.m. Saturday, about 18 miles south-southeast of the Narragansett Pier, and had a magnitude of 2.2 on the Richter Scale, the Globe reported.

The second earthquake hit at 10:15 p.m. Saturday and was a 2.5 aftershock in the same area. It was felt in Providence. At 2:40 a.m. Sunday, a 2.2 aftershock hit near New Shoreham, the Globe reported.

M 2.5 Earthquake SSE of Narragansett, Rhode Island https://t.co/JGEnYbPfcS pic.twitter.com/d4hXUo4vZQ
— NESEC (@NESEC) May 15, 2022

There were a total of 20 responses and no damage reports, the newspaper wrote.

The first two quakes happened about 3.2 miles underground, while the last happened at a depth of 1.3 miles, the Globe reported.

There is a fault line that is near the Narragansett Pier. Earthquakes are not uncommon along that fault line, where 34 earthquakes have happened between 1766 and 2016, according to the Northeast States Emergency Consortium (NESEC), a nonprofit emergency management group based in Wakefield.

The strongest earthquake along that fault line occurred in 1638 and was felt throughout the New England Colonies, the NESEC reports. Still, Rhode Island has never reported a damaging earthquake.