Rare magnitude 4.8 and 4.0 earthquakes shook the Northeast, including the greater New York area, on Friday (April 5). The first quake, measuring 4.8 in magnitude, struck at 10:23 a.m. EDT near Whitehouse Station in New Jersey, about 40 miles from Manhattan, at a depth of 2.9 miles. The second, a magnitude 4.0 tremor, occurred at 5:59 p.m. EDT with an epicenter southwest of Gladstone, New Jersey, at a depth of 5.8 miles. Although felt as far south as Baltimore and as far north as Springfield, Massachusetts, the morning quake prompted some East Coast airports to halt air traffic temporarily. Fortunately, there were no immediate reports of damage, according to The New York Times.
Occurrences of earthquakes in the Greater New York area are rare, with smaller quakes happening every two to three years and larger ones occurring roughly twice a century, as per the USGS. Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral fellow in seismology at Johns Hopkins University, noted the unusual nature of such events in the Northeast but highlighted the prevalence of intermediate-sized earthquakes.
Unlike regions with tectonic plate boundaries like California and the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast lacks such boundaries. However, it is rife with faults from ancient geological events, including the formation of the Appalachian mountains. These faults, remnants of Pangaea’s breakup, can reactivate due to various factors, resulting in earthquakes.
Despite efforts by the USGS, many smaller or deeper faults in the urban corridor spanning New York, Philadelphia, and Wilmington remain undetected, making it challenging to link earthquakes to specific faults. The largest earthquakes to hit New York City in the last 300 years include two magnitude 5.2 quakes in 1737 and 1884, along with a magnitude 5.8 quake near the U.S.-Canada border in 1944. The most recent significant quake in the region was the magnitude 5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia, in 2011.