According to USGS, a potent magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck northern New Jersey, creating shaking conditions throughout the broader northeast. At 10:23 am, the earthquake struck Tewksbury Township near Lebanon and Whitehouse Station from a depth of 4.7 km. The earthquake was strong enough for the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska to issue a tsunami bulletin about it, advising people there was no threat of tsunami along the Jersey Shore, New York City, the waters around Long Island, or beyond. There are reports of light damage coming in from New Jersey.
More than 100,000 people used the USGS “Did you feel it?” form on their website to report they felt shaking. Because of its magnitude and depth, and due to the rocky make-up of the terrain in the area in which it struck, the earthquake was felt south into the Mid Atlantic and north into New England, with thousands of reports coming in from Baltimore, Maryland and Hartford, Connecticut and points in between.
A few minutes after the earthquake struck, the Palmer, Alaska-based National Tsunami Warning Center issued a brief bulletin, saying, “..THIS IS A TSUNAMI INFORMATION STATEMENT FOR THE U.S. EAST COAST, GULF OF MEXICO STATES, AND EASTERN CANADA… There is NO tsunami danger from this earthquake.” They added that further information will be issued by the United States
Geological Survey or the appropriate regional seismic network and that would be the only U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center message issued for this event unless additional information becomes available.
Ronnie Siegel Mark who lives in Tewksbury told us, “All of our dresser drawers suddenly got pushed open we were holding down our furniture and when we went downstairs, lots of pictures and glass were broken all over the floor from things falling off shelves!!! House is still rumbling. When it started, I thought the furnace exploded and we were ready to run outside.”
“The house shook, as I was sitting down I thought my body was having a seizure until I realized it was the Earth shaking,” Les Hagerman told us of his experience in West Long Branch in New Jersey.
Melissa Ann Ciccone Silverberg told us, “15 seconds of intense shaking & what sounded like military fighter jets overhead felt here in Robbinsville. ”
Larry Makoski who tells us he works in Whitehouse Station near the epicenter told us, “Floor felt like it was bouncing and some small items got knocked over on my desk.”
Mary Ritchie Schouten told us she felt the earthquake in Wanaque, New Jersey. “First heard a weird sort of rumble, followed by the house shaking. Shaking lasted maybe 10-15 seconds, but the rumbling sound continued for an additional 15-20 seconds, almost decreasing in sound like an airplane, but that was no airplane!”
Elayne Martin Cipolla said she felt the earthquake in southern New Jersey’s Gloucester County in Washington Township. “Floor lamps and chandeliers rocking and swaying. Thought maybe the exercises at Ft Dix had started earlier than posted,” she said, referring to planned military exercises in New Jersey scheduled this month which should generating loud booms and shaking in the Garden State.
Ashley McNamee told us she’s working in Bensalem, Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia. “My coworker audibly yelped and I realized my whole cubicle was shaking. Definitely an interesting experience,” she tells us.
Erin Marie in central New Jersey’s Marlboro Township said here whole house shook. “Pretty scary,” she said.
USGS said, “Earthquakes are uncommon but not unheard of along the Atlantic Coast, a zone one study called a “passive-agressive margin” because there’s no active plate boundary between the Atlantic and North American plates, but there are stresses.”
This continues to be a developing story.
