WATERBORO — Residents around the area heard that distinctive roaring sound and then felt a shake at about 6:11 a.m. today.

It was an earthquake, a magnitude 2.3 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

According to USGS, the quake was centered four miles south of Lake Arrowhead, and about 16 miles west northwest of Biddeford.

Maine Geological Survey director Robert Marvinney said this morning’s earthquake was centered just a few miles from the center of the magnitude 4.0 earthquake experienced in the area Oct. 16.

The October earthquake was felt from Augusta to the north and as far south as southern New England. This morning’s quake was at least 100 times smaller, said Marvinney, and was felt in a much smaller area.

Residents in Waterboro, Alfred, Dayton, Lyman, Limington and some people in Biddeford and Saco reported feeling the earth shake this morning.

In Waterboro, Selectwoman TammyJo Girard said she was drinking coffee on the couch with a cat on her lap when he suddenly sank his claws into her leg.

“Then I heard a rumble that got louder as the house shook a little for a few seconds and then it faded away,” she said. “It reminds me of a big ocean wave, you hear it coming, it builds and peaks as it crashes, and then rolls away. While this one certainly was not as intense as the one we had in October, it’s still unsettling. I wonder why this is happening and hoping we aren’t leading up to something bigger.”

George Donovan, an Alfred selectman, said he was on the second floor of his home off Route 202 when he heard a sound like a train coming from Alfred village, and then the floor shook.

Dispatchers at Sanford Regional Communications took a flurry of calls from the Waterboro area.

Waterboro Fire Department Chief Matt Bors said firefighters were dispatched to one call associated with the quake, but there was no damage.

Marvinney said that is to be expected, as damage usually doesn’t take place unless an earthquake measures at least a  magnitude 5.0.

He said the earthquake this morning could be an aftershock associated with the Oct. 16 earthquake, rippling through the earth’s crust, rather than a new earthquake.

He said it is not unusual for Maine to experience several earthquakes annually, though the Oct. 16 magnitude 4.0 earthquake was the largest in the state in about 30 years.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, Ext. 327 or [email protected].