United States – According to the US Geological Survey, an earthquake slammed the United States’ East Coast on Friday morning, shaking buildings and jarring nerves from Maryland to Maine.
The USGS classified the quake as a 4.8 temblor, with the epicenter near Lebanon, New Jersey. It struck shortly before 10:30 a.m. ET.
According to USGS data, the earthquake was the strongest to hit the Northeast in more than a decade.
There were no immediate reports of serious destruction or casualties. Local and regional officials from earthquake-prone cities said checks had begun to ensure that buildings, bridges, and other infrastructure remained intact.
Follow here for live updates on the earthquake.
James Pittinger, mayor of Lebanon, New Jersey, described the earthquake as “the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced.” In an interview with MSNBC, he stated that he had not heard any reports of severe damage thus far, but that the shaking forced his dog to flee and stuff to fall from his shelves.
While a 4.8-magnitude temblor is not classified as a large earthquake, even mild shaking can inflict damage on the East Coast, which does not take the same safeguards as other earthquake hot zones around the world.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated that the tremor was felt throughout the state.
“My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” she said in a tweet.
In a lunchtime news briefing, New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated that there were no severe injuries or infrastructural impacts reported, and that residents may “go about their normal day.”
Ground stops were briefly implemented at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s website. Flight difficulties at Newark Airport lasted into the afternoon.
The Port Authority Transit Corp., which runs a rapid transit line between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ceased service in the aftermath of the earthquake.
“Crews will inspect the line’s integrity out of an abundance of caution,” PATCO stated in an update on X. “Once the inspection is completed, service will resume.” There is no timeframe. Updates will follow.”The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York said there had been no impact on service, but crews will be investigating train lines. New Jersey Transit warned commuters of 20-minute delays due to bridge maintenance following the earthquake.
While earthquakes are uncommon in the northeastern United States, Buffalo, New York was hit by a 3.8-magnitude quake in February 2023, the biggest reported in the area in four decades.
According to the US Geological Survey, a 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook the tri-state area in 2017, with the epicenter at Little Creek, Delaware. Prior to that, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit central Virginia in 2011 and was felt throughout the East Coast, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee buildings in New York, Washington, and other places.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced in a post on X that the state’s emergency operations center has been activated and that the public should not call 911 unless they are experiencing an emergency.
According to Frederik J. Simons, a geosciences professor at Princeton University, the earthquake struck a shallow fault system in New Jersey and lasted approximately 35 seconds.
Earthquakes on the East Coast can be felt from a long distance and generate more pronounced shaking than those on the West Coast because the rocks in the region are frequently older, harder, and denser. “These are competent rocks that transmit energy well,” Simons went on to say.
Simons said that the earthquake disrupted the Ramapo fault system. The system is relatively old and considered tectonically inactive. It is at a point where the continental and oceanic tectonic plates collide and become locked together. The plates grind against one another gradually, accumulating stress until something slips.
“There are cracks in it and now and then a little motion accumulates, the stress keeps growing, at very slow rates,” he went on to say. “It’s like an old house creaking and groaning.”
Simons described it as one of the largest earthquakes in New Jersey in recent memory. The most recent notable earthquake was a magnitude-3.1 in Freehold Township in September 2020.
“I’m on campus at Princeton University for the biggest one I’ve felt in a lifetime,” he told me. “This shaking was violent, strong and long.”
Some films captured the moment of the earthquake, including one from a New Jersey coffee shop.
The East Coast quake struck two days after a powerful 7.4-magnitude temblor shook the island of Taiwan, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 1,000 others. The two incidents are not thought to be related, according to Dara Goldberg, a USGS geophysicist. “We’re much too far away from the stress on the fault of Taiwan to affect New York,” she said.