NEW YORK – A 2.7-magnitude earthquake reportedly hit New Jersey, just outside of NYC, on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
What we know:
According to preliminary USGS data, the earthquake, with a depth of about 7.7 miles, struck at 12:11 p.m. ET near Hillsdale, New Jersey, about 25 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan. The latitude and longitude of the quake’s epicenter point an address on Viola Terrace in nearby Westwood.
Viola Terrace in Westwood, NJ
“Why did my building just shake again?” one X user posted shortly afterward.
Bergen County’s Office of Emergency Management is assessing damage but so far, no damage has been reported.
Saturday’s earthquake
The backstory:
This comes just days after a relatively mild 3.0 magnitude earthquake shook the New York metropolitan area on Saturday night.
It was felt throughout New York City and all the way up to Connecticut, according to the Associated Press.
There were no initial reports of serious injuries or significant damage. City officials said that as of late Sunday morning they had not been called to respond to any building-related issues. The Big Apple has more than 1 million buildings.
Many posts on social media reported the ground rumbling, and the U.S. Geological Survey reported more than 10,000 responses to its ‘Did You Feel It?’ website.
Earthquakes in NYC
Dig deeper:
Earthquakes on the East Coast, including the New York area, are not uncommon, with the region experiencing an earthquake approximately once every couple of years.
The New York – Philadelphia – Wilmington urban corridor has historically experienced small earthquakes regularly and moderately damaging ones roughly twice a century, with notable events in 1737 and 1884.
Since 1950, there have been 43 earthquakes of similar magnitude within 155 miles of a recent event.
Earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. are felt over much larger areas compared to those in the western U.S., with a magnitude 4.0 quake felt up to 100 km away and a magnitude 5.5 quake felt up to 500 km away.
Larger earthquakes, like the 4.8-magnitude quake in Tewksbury, New Jersey, in April 2024, can be felt across a wide area, as far away as Boston and Baltimore. Smaller earthquakes, such as the 1.7 magnitude quake in Astoria, Queens in January 2024, can stir local residents but typically cause minimal damage.
Unlike well-studied plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault, the urban corridor’s earthquakes are rarely linked to specific named faults due to their distance from plate boundaries and the presence of undetected faults.
The Source: This article uses information from the USGS and the Associated Press.
