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Magnitude 4.8 and 3.8 earthquakes rocked the Northeast , include the Greater New York area , on Friday ( April 5 ) , according to the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) .
The firstearthquakestruck at 10:23 a.m. EDT at a depth of 2.9 miles ( 4.7 kilometers),USGS describe . It attain 4.3 miles ( 7 km ) due north of Whitehouse Station in New Jersey , about 40 Roman mile ( 64 kilometer ) from Manhattan .
The earthquake’s epicenter was near Whitehouse Station in New Jersey, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Manhattan.
The second quake arrive at at 5:59 p.m. EDT at a deepness of 5.8 Roman mile ( 9.4 km ) , with an epicenter 4.3 miles ( 7 km ) sou'-west of Gladstone , New Jersey , USGS cover . It was in the beginning reported as a magnitude 4.0 , but later downgraded to a order of magnitude 3.8 " based on more concluded physical clay sculpture , " USGS tell .
For the first temblor , shaking was find as far south as Baltimore , Maryland , and as far northward as Springfield , Massachusetts , according to the USGS ' " Did You finger It ? " map . Some airports on the East Coast egress ground halt to arrest air traffic directly after the morning quake , but there were no prompt reports of damage , agree toThe New York Times .
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The USGS “Did You Feel It?” map shows where people most intensely felt the magnitude 4.8 earthquake.
earthquake in the Greater New York orbit are rare , but lowly and occasionally more powerful temblor have antecedently rattle this region spanning New York , Philadelphia and Wilmington . modest earthquakes hit around every two to three years , and larger ones shine or so twice a century , according to USGS .
" It ’s strange to get really boastful quake in the Northeast of the U.S. , but you do once in a while get these intermediate - size of it seism , which is what we had this morning,“Benjamin Fernando , a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences who studies seismology at Johns Hopkins University , evidence Live Science .
Most seism occur at tectonic dental plate bound , but the closest plate boundaries to New York City are in the center of the Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea . The U.S. Northeast does n’t have architectonic collection plate subduction zones like those by California and the Pacific Northwest , Fernando said . These are places where a thinner plate dip beneath an adjacent , thicker one .
" But this region , Appalachia if you care , has get lots of faults , " Fernando said .
These shift are left over from ancient mountain building events , including the rise of the Appalachian mountains . When the supercontinentPangaeaarose and crack up , it left deep fractures and faults in the bedrock that can reactivate for various reason , such as the crust readjusting to changes , Fernando tell Live Science .
" There ’s lots of what we call error , and those are fundamentally link between different rock units , " Fernando said . " Occasionally , you get motility on those faults that when the emphasis gets too high they luxate . And that ’s what gives you an quake . "
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Many small or deep faults in the New York , Philadelphia and Wilmington urban corridor likely stay undetected , USGS say , and most of the region ’s small earthquakes can not be tie in to a named geological fault . Moreover , " it is difficult to watch if a know mistake is still active and could slip and cause an seism , " USGS noted .
The magnanimous earthquakes to rock New York City in the retiring 300 age let in two magnitude 5.2 quakes that struck on Dec. 19 , 1737 , and Aug. 10 , 1884 , according to theLamont - Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia Universityin New York . In 1944 , a magnitude 5.8 quake with an epicenter at the U.S.-Canada border by Quebec was felt in New York City , Boston , Quebec and Toronto .
The last big earthquake to strike the neighborhood was themagnitude 5.8 earthquakethat collide with near Mineral , Virginia , on Aug. 23 , 2011 . That earthquake occurred " within a previously recognized seismal zone , the ' Central Virginia Seismic Zone , ' " grant toUSGS .
