If you felt some unusual tremors this morning, there’s a good reason: a rare earthquake rattled the New York-New Jersey area. WAMC's Capital Region
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake was likely felt by more than 42 million people. The 10:23 a.m. temblor registered a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, and was centered near Lebanon, New Jersey, some 45 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia.
Van Thorne lives 13 miles from the epicenter in New Vernon, New Jersey. He was still in bed when his house began to shake. "I was being a little lazy this morning on a Friday, sleeping in, and I didn't know if I was dreaming this or not. I texted my wife it was in upstate New York and I said, ‘either there has been a fairly substantial earthquake or I have had some kind of event.’ And then that it turned on the news and there's nothing on that. And I thought, 'Okay, this is strange. What is happening? Are we under attack? Have I had a stroke?' The whole house, it was not like you see in the videos from California where the glasses are shaking off, not that way. It was like a deep shaking," Thorne said.
In Guilderland, Albany County Legislator Mark Grimm's house was also shaking. "And this wasn't a second or two. This is about five seconds. It gave me time enough to say ‘what's going to happen here, how long is this going to last’ and it's a very concerning experience to say the least."
Others describe experiencing the earthquake as a "wave" beneath their feet. At a briefing in Albany, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said it was "one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast to occur in the last century."
"Right now it's most important that we have our structural teams out there, our engineering teams surveying our bridges, our roads, any area there could be a fault line that is not easily detectable to make sure that passengers on our rails as well as our commuters are safe," said Hochul.
In the Hudson Valley, officials in Ulster, Orange, Dutchess, Putnam, and Rockland Counties say they are working with state authorities to assess the situation. No damage has been reported so far. Hochul said "We are going to be reviewing all potentially vulnerable infrastructure state sites throughout the state of New York. That is critically important in the aftermath of an event like this."
Hochul pointed out that no "life-threatening situations" have been identified and she has been in touch with the White House.
Jessica Jobe with the U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake "occurred in a region of recognized seismic hazard" and, although the timing is coincidental, is not related to the upcoming eclipse.
"There's a history of similar size earthquakes in the New York region over the last few 100 years," Jobe said. "And as a reminder, a damaging earthquakes can occur in the future. So remember to drop cover and hold on if you feel shaking. And no one can predict the exact time or place of any earthquake, including the aftershocks."
Jobe says earthquakes on the East Coast are perceived as being more intense than similar sized earthquakes on the West Coast, because the rock is harder, and the seismic waves travel further.
It wasn't a one-off. Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten curates sedimentary rocks at the New York State Museum.
"There have been six different earthquakes. The first one was a 4.8 magnitude. And that's a rather large earthquake, it goes on a scale from zero to 10. So that's pretty strong one but the five subsequent earthquakes were 2.0, 2.2, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.0. magnitude, and those are all weak. A 2.0 might be felt by people very close to above, at the surface of the land above where the earthquake happened," said Ver Straeten.
The New Jersey quake was relatively small. The recent earthquake in Taiwan, at magnitude 7.4, released up to 3,000 times more energy than this earthquake. Ver Straten says the details are in the scales.
"When there's an earthquake, that's like a 3.0, if there's a 3.1 magnitude, that is 10 times as strong as the 3.0. Most people think it's just a gradual climb. But no, it's each point one added is 10 more, is 10 times as intense as the 3.0," Ver Straeten said.
