Magnitude 2.7 earthquake rattles New Jersey and NYC days after rare quake

A magnitude 2.7 earthquake struck parts of New Jersey and the New York City area, just days after a rare tremor was felt across the region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The quake occurred at 12:11 p.m. on Tuesday and was centered in Bergen County, New Jersey, at a depth of approximately 7.7 miles, the USGS reported. The epicenter was located beneath the Township of Washington, about 9.5 miles west of Yonkers, 15 miles northwest of Manhattan, and 18 miles northeast of Newark.

More than 3,000 people submitted felt reports to the USGS, most describing weak shaking.

“Felt like a giant truck was barreling past the house,” wrote one resident of Park Ridge, New Jersey, near the epicenter, in a report to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). “Two to three seconds and it was over.” Another user described it as “as bad as Saturday,” though no damage was reported.

On Saturday, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck the region, with its epicenter roughly 7.5 miles south of Tuesday’s quake and closer to densely populated areas of the Greater New York region. That event, also considered rare for the area, caused no damage but was widely felt.

While major quakes are rare, moderate earthquakes capable of causing damage strike the region roughly twice a century, and smaller ones are felt every few years, according to the USGS.

Because of the geology in the eastern U.S., even small earthquakes can be felt across a much wider area than similar quakes on the West Coast. Most quakes in this region occur on ancient, deeply buried faults that are hard to identify, making it difficult to predict where future earthquakes might happen.