A 4.8-magnitude earthquake occurred Friday morning in New Jersey, about 50 miles from New York City, as reported by the U.S. Geophysical Survey (USGS), which identified the epicenter in the town of Lebanon, Hunterdon County, and the hypocenter at a depth of about 3 kilometers.
The quake, which began at 10:23 a.m. local time and lasted about 20 seconds, was felt sharply in the Big Apple but also in Philadelphia and Boston.
The city’s fire department reported that it has not yet received any reports of damage to property or people. Out of fear, people in some New York City neighborhoods took to the streets, as some pictures posted on social media show. The quake also surprised the U.N. Security Council, which was discussing the situation in the Middle East in Midtown Manhattan.
Several East Coast airports imposed air traffic stoppages for the immediate hours afterward, including JFK and Newark.
The New York metropolitan area is crossed by as many as three earthquake faults. In August 1884, a magnitude 5.2 quake rattled buildings in the Big Apple but caused no casualties. In 2011, however, many felt the 5.8 magnitude quake that occurred in neighboring Virginia.
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