A 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck near Lebanon, New Jersey around 10:23 a.m. this Friday morning, with tremors being felt throughout the Hudson Valley. It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the Northeast, where seismic activity is comparatively rare.
Though there were no initial reports of casualties or major damage, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day.”
“Jolted awake from a nap by my bed vigorously shaking here in Kingston,” wrote Dani Marie on the Ulster County Fire/Rescue Incidents page on Facebook.
“Felt it all the way up in Ashland, the whole house cracked,” commented Jennifer Hamilton.
Thousands of Hudson Valley residents took to social media to share their experience feeling the quake. Though not everyone reported feeling it, many who did reported they initially did not realize it was an earthquake until going online to see others reporting the tremors across the Hudson Valley.
The Kingston School District issued an alert that “All schools will remain open, and the day will proceed as scheduled… we will continue monitoring the situation closely.”
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) report on the earthquake indicated there was a 46% chance of an aftershock of magnitude three or greater within the next week. Their report also indicated a 29% chance of ten or fewer fatalities having been caused by the quake.
The USGS’s estimate of how far the earthquake was felt was inaccurate, indicating that the quake should have been felt over a much smaller area. This suggests the quake occurred at a shallow depth, which is typical of tremors felt over very large areas, versus deeper quakes which are generally more localized. In the Northeast, tremors have the tendency to propagate over a wider area versus their Western US counterparts. Shallow earthquakes are also typically noisier than deeper ones, which corroborates widespread reports that the earthquake was not just felt but loudly heard.
In New York City, all flights have resumed after being temporarily grounded. The Holland Tunnel was briefly closed for inspection and has now reopened. City residents reported widespread first responder activity as sirens rang throughout the five boroughs. However, some were critical of an emergency alert text being sent to NYC residents over 40 minutes after the incident.
This Kingston-based writer received an emergency alert text at 12:05 pm, nearly two hours after the incident. As earthquake alert texts are sent based on USGS data, it is possible that the agency’s inaccurate initial assessment of the area of impact caused a delay in sending emergency notifications.
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