According to USGS, a weak earthquake rattled northern New Jersey this afternoon. At 1:30 pm, a weak magnitude 1.7 earthquake struck near Gladstone, New Jersey from a depth of 5 km.  A few dozen people reported to USGS via their website reporting tool that they felt and/or heard the quake. There were no reports of any injuries nor damage nor would there be any expected at this magnitude.  Today’s earthquake was the first to strike this part of New Jersey in the last three weeks, according to USGS.

Earthquakes felt in New Jersey are generally few and small. However, some earthquakes have produced damage in New Jersey. While the Garden State’s seismic hazard is lower than many earthquake-prone parts of the United States, USGS says that the hazard is present with the greatest risk of damaging earthquakes in northeastern New Jersey where today’s earthquake struck.

USGS says that earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or less are rarely felt or heard by people, but once they exceed 2.0 , more and more people can feel them. While damage is possible with magnitude 3.0 events or greater, significant damage and casualties usually don’t occur until the magnitude of a seismic event rises to a 5.5 or greater rated event.

Because of the rock structure of the ground around northern New Jersey, even a weaker earthquake can be felt in more places by more people than an earthquake of similar magnitude in places like California.

“While this earthquake is relatively small globally, earthquakes of this magnitude are commonly widely felt in the eastern United States because of efficient seismic wave propagation in the region,” USGS wrote.

Earthquakes in the eastern U.S.  are infrequent but not unexpected. In April 2024, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake occurred near Tewksbury, New Jersey, approximately 5 miles west-southwest of the today’s seismic event.  That earthquake was widely felt across the northeastern United States.