Nearly 30 aftershocks recorded around NJ quake epicenter since Friday
The ground continues to shake after Friday’s 4.8-magnitude earthquake and likely will continue to do so for some time.
At least 29 aftershocks were recorded in the Garden State since the rare quake hit, including one tremor of 3.8 hours after the initial event. But residents of NYC shouldn’t expect much beyond possibly a light shake in the coming days.
The rumbles were detected in areas around Whitehouse Station, NJ, the epicenter of Friday’s quake, including near Tewksbury and Bedminster, according to the United States Geological Survey. The smaller temblors hit as far as 13 miles away from the epicenter.
One clocked in at 1.9 just after 1 a.m. Saturday morning just north of Whitehouse Station — about 45 miles west of NYC — and another at 2.5 just before 7 a.m. near Gladstone, northeast of the epicenter.
Over the next week, there is a 74% chance of additional 3-plus magnitude aftershocks, but the USGS does not foresee more than five occurring. There is just a 14% chance of a quake clocking in at a magnitude of 4 or higher, and likely only one will come this week.
Over the course of the next month, however, the chance of a 3-plus magnitude quake rises to 84%, while a the chance of a 4 or greater is 18%. It’s almost certain — 98% — that more 3-plus magnitude shakers will come in the next year, the USGS said.
The nearly 30 rumbles that followed the first quake aren’t a shock to geologists, though.
“We do expect aftershocks like this to occur in the days, weeks and months after the main shock, so this is fully within the realm of what is expected,” USGS research geologist Alex Hatem told The Post.
The chance of NYC feeling another rattle, however, is low. A light shake could be possible in the coming days, Hatem said, but nothing like the quake that rocked the Statue of Liberty and City Hall Friday or the aftershock that rippled through later that evening.
The quake grounded flights and halted traffic around the Big Apple.
“Should this sequence continue as it is, which we expect it to, there won’t be anything greater than what already happened,” Hatem said.
Though researchers expect earthquakes to happen “anytime, anywhere,” it is a rare occurrence for New Jersey, which doesn’t lie on an active plate boundary, Hatem said.
The incident did occur, however, near the Ramapo Fault, which is an ancient crack in the Earth’s crust. Faults lie on the edges of plates and can sometimes be the site of quakes.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy posted on X Saturday that the state’s emergency operations center was deactivated that morning.
“We have had no reports of major damage to structures, roadways, or infrastructure as a result of yesterday’s earthquake,” Murphy said.
Residents in several homes in Newark were able to return to their homes Friday night after being evacuated over concerns about possible structural damage.
Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams said there were no initial reports of injuries or damage in New York, though it later emerged that the walls of a school gym in Brooklyn suffered several cracks.
Engineers with the city Department of Buildings ordered the gymnasium at J.H.S. 218 in East New York shut down until repairs are made.
The earthquake was the biggest for the tri-state area since 1884.
The USGS recently released a study that showed that about 75% of the US that could experience a damaging earthquake in the next 100 years.
Friday’s rattle should be a “gentle reminder” to those on the East Coast, however, to be prepared and familiar with “drop, cover and hold on” actions to stay safe in the event of another quake.
New York City officials were blasted for emergency alerts that didn’t go out until 25 minutes after the earthquake struck. Some NYC public school alerts didn’t go out until an hour and a half after the shock — and were resent Saturday morning, telling parents that dismissal would proceed as usual.
