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This is an archive article published on April 5, 2024

4.8 magnitude earthquake hits New York City: why it is a rare event in the region

Unlike the West Coast areas, like California, the East Coast, which includes New York, doesn’t sit near the edges of tectonic plates.

earthquakeA photo illustration shows an emergency alert of a magnitude 4.7 earthquake on a cellphone in New York City, U.S., April 5, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/Illustration TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

An earthquake struck near New York City on Friday (April 5), shaking buildings and surprising residents in an area which rarely experiences any major seismic activity. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the preliminary magnitude of the quake was 4.8 and its epicentre was in New Jersey.

People reported feeling tremors from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. A New York City Police Department spokesperson said it had not received any reports of damages, Reuters said.

Here is a look at what might have caused an earthquake in New York, and why the city rarely experiences them.

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What caused the New York earthquake?

It isn’t clear what fault line the latest earthquake originated on. Fault lines are essentially fractures that allow tectonic plates — pieces of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle — to move, leading to earthquakes.

“There is a major fault line in New Jersey called the Ramapo Fault, which stems from the Appalachian Mountains,” according to a report by CBS. There are also at least five smaller fault lines under the island of Manhattan, the report added.

Notably, it isn’t easy to determine exactly which fault line a quake originated along on the East Coast. That’s because “the nearest plate boundaries are in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean, making it hard to study the area,” the report said.

Why is an earthquake rare in New York?

Unlike the West Coast areas, like California, the East Coast, which includes New York, doesn’t sit near the edges of tectonic plates.

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“Hundreds of millions of years ago, the land that would eventually become New York was a place where continents crashed together and large earthquakes shook the earth below,” according to a report by The New York Times.

The fault lines that run through the area became less active over time. However, they sometimes still release stress from that period.

“A lot of what you feel here, these little earthquakes, are a settling down of the stresses from way back then,” John C Mutter, a professor of earth and environmental studies at Columbia University, told the NYT.

“A lot of what you feel here, these little earthquakes, are a settling down of the stresses from way back then… It takes a while for things to settle,” he said.

(With inputs from Reuters and NYT)

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