East Coast US Earthquake 2024-04-05

I had turned the volumes down on the ringtone and text notifications when my son went to bed Thursday night and forgot to turn them back up. I didn't realize that he had called me 4 times in a row (and texted me) until I paused a TV show and was able to hear the phone, which was in another room. The text came in at 10:21 so it must've happened right then or a minute or two before. He was down in Edison, N.J. making a delivery when he felt it. He said the company's supervisor told everyone an earthquake had occurred and to evacuate.

My friend who lives close to Newark, N.J. and one of my neighbors who lives across the courtyard, felt it. I did not. Weirdly, my neighbor's sister, who lives in another part of town, didn't feel it, but her aide was with her at the time felt it. Later reporting said the quake was felt as far down as Maryland.

As suspected, the quake ran along the Ramapo fault line and was reportedly centered in Hunterdon County, N.J. According to a news report earlier in the day, there was at least one aftershock of 2.0 magnitude. I got a robo call from the mayor's office that said there were no reports of damage in our city. What we did have in our city again...was flooding from all the rain.
 
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One of the weathermen on Fox News this AM, said he had just gotten on the toilet when it happened!
It was his first earthquake so he was thrilled.

We had a minor quake here in Southern tier NY in 2002. I live in the country and it sounded like an enormous truck was barreling down our hill road. It seemed to shake the whole house for a few seconds, then my phone rang and it was a neighbor asking me if a big truck had just passed down the hill- I said no-I think it was an earthquake but then I said I was just kidding.

Within a few hours we heard it was, in fact, a minor earthquake.
 
Sciguy said:
Earthquakes are not really rare on the East Coast. They are usually so weak, however, that nobody notices them. Itā€™s only when people experience the rumbling and shaking that it causes a stir.
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Right. Last year, I was surprised when I checked Wiki's page about N.J. earthquakes (did it because of something my cousin asked me). I sure hope this (in bold print) doesn't come to pass though:
"Despite the rarity of strong East Coast earthquakes in the United States, they do sometimes occur. Furthermore, when these rare eastern U.S. events do occur, the areas affected by them are, on average ten times as large as western ones for events of the same magnitude.[11] Thus, earthquakes represent at least a moderate hazard to East Coast cities.

Earthquakes in the greater New York City area affect most of New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the United States, as well as New York City. It is difficult to discern the extent to which the Ramapo fault itself (or any other specific mapped fault in the area) might be any more of a source of future earthquakes than any other parts of the region. A 2008 study argued that a magnitude 6 or 7 earthquake was destined to originate from the Ramapo fault zone, which would almost definitely spawn hundreds or even thousands of fatalities and billions of dollars in damage.[23]

Studying around 400 earthquakes over the past 300 years, the study also argued that there was an additional fault zone extending from the Ramapo Fault Zone into southwestern Connecticut.[23] On the other hand, other seismologists have argued that neither the Ramapo Fault nor any hypothesized fault zone extending into southwestern Connecticut has been demonstrated to be any more active than any other parts of the greater New York City area.[6]"

We don't live all that far from the Ramapo Fault. More about the Ramapo Fault: Ramapo Fault - Wikipedia
 
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I'm only about 60 miles from White House Station, NJ. And I didn't feel a thing. Yet, people in Stroudsburg, PA- 20 miles from me, were shaken. I live on a deep bed of clay. I have no idea if that acted like some sort of damper??????
In one of my previous lives, I worked in a ceramic shop. I've often thought of getting a lump of the clay and molding it into a dish or pot. and having it fired- my "own" piece of my property.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I'm only about 60 miles from White House Station, NJ. And I didn't feel a thing. Yet, people in Stroudsburg, PA- 20 miles from me, were shaken. I live on a deep bed of clay. I have no idea if that acted like some sort of damper??????
In one of my previous lives, I worked in a ceramic shop. I've often thought of getting a lump of the clay and molding it into a dish or pot. and having it fired- my "own" piece of my property.
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Iā€™m about 30 miles south of the epicenter and I definitely felt it - one of the big aftershocks as well.
 
Here's another take on what caused the quake. This article also mentions the possibility of a bigger quake, but due to a long dormant region called the Appalachian fold and thrust belt. I'm not clear if the Ramapo fault line is considered part of that region. After you click the link, click on Read Full Article (in orange on the top right of the headline text). You do not have to scan or download the Smart News app. The bold print blue text in the excerpt below links to another article.

"It remains to be seen whether this is just one quake or a series. Aftershocks are possible in the coming weeks, USGS warned. Most likely any aftershocks will be smaller quakes, but there is a small chance that an ensuing quake will be of similar or larger magnitude."
The East Coast earthquake came from a fault that's been asleep for hundreds of millions of years but suddenly reactivated (Business Insider)

@Sciguy I still didn't feel a thing, I don't think. But I got up to go in the kitchen yesterday and felt a little off kilter for a few seconds. I don't know if that was due to an aftershock. :unsure: I've gotten dizzy enough times in the past to know that it felt different somehow.
I saw a news report that said two or three houses in Newark, N.J. were damaged so badly that they are deeming them uninhabitable and residents had to be evacuated.
 
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Usually a 4 is not that destructive, at least in a place with solidly built homes. I experienced a 6.1 when I lived on the west coast, and even that wasn't so bad. Mostly just a lot of stuff fell off shelves, etc. It can be scary, though.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Here's another take on what caused the quake. This article also mentions the possibility of a bigger quake, but due to a long dormant region called the Appalachian fold and thrust belt. I'm not clear if the Ramapo fault line is considered part of that region. After you click the link, click on Read Full Article (in orange on the top right of the headline text). You do not have to scan or download the Smart News app. The bold print blue text in the excerpt below links to another article.

"It remains to be seen whether this is just one quake or a series. Aftershocks are possible in the coming weeks, USGS warned. Most likely any aftershocks will be smaller quakes, but there is a small chance that an ensuing quake will be of similar or larger magnitude."
The East Coast earthquake came from a fault that's been asleep for hundreds of millions of years but suddenly reactivated (Business Insider)

@Sciguy I still didn't feel a thing, I don't think. But I got up to go in the kitchen yesterday and felt a little off kilter for a few seconds. I don't know if that was due to an aftershock. :unsure: I've gotten dizzy enough times in the past to know that it felt different somehow.
I saw a news report that said two or three houses in Newark, N.J. were damaged so badly that they are deeming them uninhabitable and residents had to be evacuated.
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The only notable damage I heard about was a ruptured water main in one of the towns.
 

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