new york –
An earthquake centered between New York and Philadelphia shook high-rise buildings and suburbs in the northeastern United States for several seconds Friday morning. There was no major damage, but it stunned millions of people in areas unaccustomed to such tremors.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that at 10:23 a.m. near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of New York City and about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Philadelphia, It was reported that an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 occurred in 2015. . According to the agency’s statistics, more than 42 million people may have felt the tremor.
People from Baltimore to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border reported feeling the ground shake. There were no immediate reports of significant damage, but authorities inspected bridges and other key infrastructure, Amtrak reduced train speeds across the busy Northeast Corridor, and Philadelphia-area commuter railroads were put on “high alert.” ” and the service was suspended. ”
Photos and plates fell off the walls of Christian Thompson’s White House Station home. Thompson was volunteering at a local library when the earthquake occurred, and there was little damage, but her husband gave her a report on the scene at his home.
“The dogs lost their minds and were running around very scared,” she said.
For Sean Clark, who felt the quake in his 26th-floor office in midtown Manhattan, it was “pretty weird and scary.” Clark, a lawyer, initially feared an explosion or construction accident. His colleague Finn Dusenberry feared the ceiling and building would collapse.
The quake slowed travel along the East Coast, diverted some flights and caused traffic jams on roads and rail lines as runways, bridges and tunnels were inspected. Flights bound for Newark, New York and Baltimore airports were temporarily held at their departure points while authorities inspected the runways for cracks. At least five flights bound for Newark were diverted and landed at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
Among the affected travelers was the Seton Hall University men’s basketball team, which was stranded in Indianapolis and won Thursday’s national invitational tournament. The team said its flight to Newark was postponed due to the grounding caused by the earthquake, and a welcome celebration scheduled for Friday afternoon at the Seton Hall campus in South Orange, New Jersey, may be delayed.
Traffic through the Holland Tunnel between Jersey City, New Jersey and Lower Manhattan was halted for about 10 minutes for inspection, the Port Authority of New York and Jersey said.
In Midtown Manhattan, traffic grew louder as drivers honked their horns on the shivering streets. Some Brooklyn residents heard a thud and felt the building shake. Cell phone lines were briefly overloaded as people tried to contact loved ones and figure out what was happening.
This image provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the epicenter of an earthquake that occurred on the East Coast of the United States on Thursday, April 5, 2024.
At United Nations Headquarters in New York, Save the Children chief executive Janti Soeripto addresses an emergency Security Council meeting about the threat of starvation in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli drone attack that killed aid workers in the Strip. The explanation was interrupted by the shaking.
“An earthquake?” Soeripto wondered aloud, then went ahead and asked if he was okay. She did so, but soon an earthquake alarm rang out from the diplomat’s cell phone.
In New York City’s Astoria neighborhood, Cassondra Kurtz was massaging the dry skin of her 14-year-old Chihuahua, Tiki, with cocoa butter. Kurtz recorded the moment on video as a memento of the dog’s daily life in old age. At that moment, her apartment began to shake violently, and she could hear the sound of a large mirror hitting the wall.
At first, Kurtz thought a large truck was passing by. Her video showed her looking around her in confusion. However, Chiki “didn’t care at all.”
The screen shows an emergency alert for the New York City area for Friday, April. New York, 5th 2024. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
Because the East Coast is not on a plate boundary, earthquakes occur less frequently on the eastern edge of the United States than on the western edge. The largest earthquakes in the East typically occur along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which extends from Iceland to the Atlantic Ocean.
East Coast earthquakes can still be powerful because rocks on the East Coast are better at dispersing seismic energy over farther distances than rocks on the West Coast.
“An earthquake of the same magnitude in California probably wouldn’t be felt as far away,” said USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso.
The magnitude 4.8 earthquake was not large enough to cause damage, apart from minor impacts near the epicenter, authorities posted on X.
Robert Thorson, a professor of geosciences at the University of Connecticut, said the quake was caused by continued compression of New Jersey’s hard, brittle crust.
“It’s like putting a big block of ice in a vise and slowly raising the vise,” he says. Eventually, you’ll end up with a crackling sound. ”
Friday’s quake was felt as far away as Vermont and New Hampshire, and some residents initially thought it was caused by snow falling off roofs or by snowplows roaring past.
Stacey Santa Cruz, a paralegal, watched her computer screen shake in her office in Hartford, Connecticut.
“I was a little surprised, but I kind of sorted out that maybe it was an earthquake,” she said, noting that she had experienced a major earthquake in her native Peru.
According to the USGS, earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater occurred near New York City in 1737, 1783, and 1884. And on Friday, memories of the Aug. 23, 2011 earthquake that shook tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada were shaken. The epicenter was in Virginia, leaving cracks in the Washington Monument and rattling New Yorkers ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The 5.8 magnitude earthquake was the largest earthquake to hit the East Coast since World War II.
On Friday, President Joe Biden said he spoke with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy about the earthquake. The White House said the administration will provide assistance to state and local officials as needed.
Pedestrians cross a street in New York on Thursday, April 5, 2024. An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area Friday morning, with residents across the Northeast reporting rumbling in unfamiliar areas, the U.S. Geological Survey said. I feel the ground moving. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Mayor Eric Adams said on the X program that as of midday there were no signs of “significant life safety or infrastructure issues in New York City due to the earthquake,” adding that the city was inspecting critical areas.
Kristen Thomas, the owner of a Chinatown art gallery, was worried about the fate of the sculpture, which features five real eggs on a candlestick-like pedestal. However, Carlos Estevez’s work never stopped.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the quake was felt across the state, but officials reported no life-threatening problems.
Solomon Byron felt it as he sat on a park bench in Manhattan’s East Village.
“I thought, ‘Where is that vibration coming from?'” Byron recalls. He was especially confused because there was no subway nearby.
However, I did not realize that an earthquake had occurred until I received an alert on my cell phone.
Catalini reported from Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. The report included Jake Offenhart, Bobbie Kaina Calvin and Karen Matthews of New York City, Edith M. Lederer of the United Nations, Seth Borenstein of Washington, and Mark of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Scolforo and other Associated Press journalists from across the country contributed. Located in Hartford, Connecticut.
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