It’s been a busy last 7 days in the northeast, seismically speaking, with more than 1,000 people reporting to USGS that they’ve felt shaking from one of three earthquakes to strike the region. While noticeable, they were all too weak to create any damage or injuries.
According to USGS, earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or less are rarely felt or heard by people, but once they exceed 2.0, as this event did, 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.
The first and weakest of the last 7 days was a magnitude 1.6 which struck just west-southwest of Chesterfield in southwestern New Hampshire on the morning of May 18. The second and second strongest of the bunch struck on May 21 near Elizabethtown in Upstate New York; that quake was measured to be a magnitude 2.1 event. The most recent earthquake of the three was also the strongest; a magnitude 2.9 quake struck near Gladstone, New Jersey, generating more than 900 reports alone to the USGS of shaking my people there.
The New Jersey earthquake was an aftershock to a strong jolt that struck the region in early April. The New Jersey earthquake sequence began with a 4.8 magnitude event on Friday, April 5 and has been followed by more than 100 aftershocks, including some that were quite moderate. According to USGS, 3.7 magnitude event struck near Bedminster just before 6 pm on April 5, with 10 other earthquakes measuring as a 2.0 or greater magnitude event.
The earthquakes in New York and New Hampshire were minor and do happen from time to time in the region.
According to the Northeast States Emergency Consortium (NESEC), New York is a state with a very long history of earthquake activity that has touched all parts of the state. Since the first earthquake that was recorded in December 19, 1737, New York has had over 550 earthquakes centered within its state boundaries through 2016. It also has experienced strong ground shaking from earthquakes centered in nearby U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Most of the quakes in New York have taken place in the greater New York City area, in the Adirondack Mountains region, and in the western part of the state.
While many of the earthquakes to hit New York are weak like the May 21 event, some have been damaging. Of the 551 earthquakes recorded between 1737 and 2016, 5 were considered “damaging”: 1737, 1929, 1944, 1983, and 2002.
While most of New York’s earthquakes have been in the Upstate, New York City has also seen damaging earthquakes over the years. At about 10:30 pm on December 18, 1737, an earthquake with an unknown epicenter hit New York with an estimated magnitude of 5.2. That quake damaged some chimneys in the city. On August 10, 1884, another 5.2 earthquake struck; this quake cracked chimneys and plaster, broke windows, and objects were thrown from shelves throughout not only New York City, but surrounding towns in New York and New Jersey too. The shaking from the 1884 earthquake was felt as far west as Toledo, Ohio and as far east as Penobscot Bay, Maine. It was also reported felt by some in Baltimore, Maryland.
