The quake that struck around 2 a.m. Wednesday was centered near East Freehold, New Jersey.
At 2 am this morning local time, a small tremor shook the ground 2 Km SSE of East Freehold, New Jersey. The quake measured 3.1 magnitude and was shallow at 5 km (3 miles) depth. Therefore, it could be widely felt as weak to light shaking in distances of up to 30-40 miles, especially under calm conditions (no traffic nearby etc).
Even downtown New York City including Manhattan at approx. 40 miles distance, could feel the quake. In fact, thousands of people immediately reported to USGS about this for the area very rare event.
In fact, earthquakes in New York and New Jersey are very rare, but small ones of magnitudes around 3 do occur every few years or so. Due to the small magnitude, they pose no danger.
So far, within less than 2 hours after the tremor occurred, more than 700 people have reported that the quake for them occurred in the middle of the night. We thank all of them!
Within 15-20 miles of the epicenter, shaking was seems to have been quite noticeable, which is actually surprising for such a small magnitude event. On the other hand, because it was in an area where there are usually no earthquakes, people might be more surprised by it, while such a tremor in California would hardly be worth mentioning.
One user reported hearing a loud rumbling that lasted for at least 10 seconds and sounded like a low-flying jet plane. Shaking of the quake was felt like a soft vibration, which is typical for small earthquakes of this magnitude and type
See tweet below:
M3.1 #earthquake #NewJersey Higher felt intensity than predictions and strong high-frequencies on seismograms (even in displacement, lower trace) suggest a "high-stress drop" earthquake – fracture in very rigid rock.https://t.co/vHpiIJdxhUhttps://t.co/oImxEKWIkn pic.twitter.com/hzqo6FwXna
— Anthony Lomax ???????????????? (@ALomaxNet) September 9, 2020
