MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rare earthquake hits New York City area

Although rare, previous seisms have been recorded in the New York area

No victims were reported after a 4.8º magnitude on the Richter scale hit the vicinity of New York City and parts of neighboring New Jersey. According to local media citing United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports, the epicenter was located some 60 miles from Manhattan, in the town of Lebanon in New Jersey State at a depth of 5,000 meters. The quake was also felt in parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts as well as in Philadelphia.

The New York City Mayor's Office said that there were some minor aftershocks following the initial tremor at 10.23 am local time (UTC - 3). ”We have no information at this time about significant damage (but) we continue to assess the situation,“ wrote a spokesperson for the mayor of New York on X.

New York Mayor Eric Adams advised citizens to go about their daily activities as normal. ”Our preliminary reports indicate no major infrastructure or human safety issues due to the earthquake. We are conducting thorough inspections of critical areas,“ he said.

”My team is assessing the impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on X.

Due to the seism, air traffic at the airports of La Guardia (LGA) and John F. Kennedy (JFK) in New York, and Newark Liberty (EWR) in New Jersey was affected. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the earthquake could also disrupt air services in Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

At the same time, Hochul said that railway services were operational, although train speeds were adjusted so that crews could inspect the tracks to check out for any possible damage.

Although rare, previous seisms have been recorded in the New York area. In 2008, researchers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory analyzed 383 earthquakes in an 18,000-square-kilometer area around New York City, The New York Times recalled.

At the time they estimated that a magnitude 5 earthquake in or around the city occurs on average once per century, while a magnitude 6 or greater earthquake occurs once every 670 years. In addition, they estimated that an even larger magnitude 7 occurs every 3,400 years.