New York City shakes as 4.8 magnitude earthquake hits US north-east | New York

An earthquake struck the densely populated New York metropolitan area Friday morning, and residents reported feeling the ground rumbling along the East Coast in a relatively rare phenomenon for the region, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The agency reported a preliminary magnitude 4.8 earthquake, with the preliminary location of the epicenter near Lebanon, N.J., then near Tewksbury Station and White House Station, with all three stations roughly within 10 Located in Hunterdon County. radius mile.

People reported feeling the earthquake in Connecticut and Massachusetts, the Weather Channel reported it was felt noticeably in Boston, and residents of Philadelphia also reported feeling it. The shaking, which lasted several seconds, was felt more than 320 miles away near the New Hampshire border.

More than a dozen aftershocks were reported in the area in the hours that followed, including a magnitude 4.0 quake that struck early Friday evening, according to the USGS.

The New York City Fire Department said Friday there were no initial reports of damage or injuries. However, city residents were shocked and a little upset by the unexpected event. Meanwhile, people sitting at desks or in their homes in the high-rise building felt the entire building shake lightly for several seconds.

Camille Lewis was at a cafe in New York City when she felt the shaking.

“I’ve never been in an earthquake in New York, so to be honest, I was scared that something was going to happen. I’m glad the building I was in held up and honestly, I’m so glad everyone is safe.” I’m happy,” she said.

Lewis continued: “I thought, ‘Do I need to get under the table?'” Everyone was looking around, wondering what was going on. It lasted a while. It’s definitely weird. ”

The movement has since subsided, but city officials reported that people were anxious about aftershocks and busy communicating with friends and family, including children at school, temporarily placing a high load on mobile phone networks.

“There are no reports of significant impacts at this time, but we are still assessing the impact,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council was meeting at its New York headquarters to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip when an earthquake shook the building.

Mayor Eric Adams said “New Yorkers should go about their daily lives as normal,” while Gov. Cathy Hochul said at a news conference that the quake was also felt in Baltimore, Maryland. “This is one of the largest earthquakes to occur on the East Coast in the last 100 years,” she said.

“Everyone should continue to take this seriously” in preparation for aftershocks, she added.

Flights were grounded at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Newark International Airport in New Jersey, causing delays in arrivals. East Coast rail service was delayed but not canceled, and New York City’s public transit system continued to operate.

Hochul’s office reminded residents that the earthquake, while “highly unusual,” was not an isolated event on New York’s geological faults. The shaking was felt in varying degrees across New England and as far south as Pennsylvania and Maryland, including Baltimore, and Joe Biden on Friday afternoon warned that a major bridge that had collapsed in Baltimore 10 days earlier, blocking the port. The plan was to inspect the damage situation.

Among those taking Friday’s quake in stride was Roisin Brady, 36, an English teacher at a private school in Manhattan. She said her students will write poems about the earthquake.

Brady and her students were already planning to use the upcoming eclipse as material for a poetry unit. However, this earthquake is also a rare phenomenon that her junior high school students wrote about.

Brady was working on a student report remotely from her fourth-floor bedroom in her Brooklyn apartment when the earthquake struck. Her boyfriend was in the kitchen yelling to Brady that the glassware was vibrating.

She noticed that the clothes in the couple’s wardrobe were shaking. She then noticed that the building across the street was also shaking.

“It was really surreal,” said Brady, who lives in Glasgow, Scotland. “Seeing all my boyfriend’s clothes hanging and then swinging was just a surreal experience,” she added.

The shaking evoked memories of the Aug. 23, 2011 earthquake that shook tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada. The 5.8 magnitude earthquake was the largest earthquake to hit the East Coast since World War II. The epicenter was in Virginia.

The quake cracked the Washington Monument, prompted the evacuation of the White House and Capitol, and shocked New Yorkers three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the Empire State Building’s official social media accounts reassured fans.

James Pittinger, mayor of Lebanon, New Jersey, near the epicenter, said there were no reports of injuries or major damage, but people were shaken. “I was sitting in my home office and things started falling off the walls and shelves,” Pittinger said. “It was a crazy experience.”

Earthquakes in the eastern United States are felt over a much wider area because the rock is much older and harder, making it easier for seismic energy to travel, according to the USGS. Rocks in the western United States are younger and contain more faults that absorb earthquake energy.

Report contributed by Reuters