4.8 Magnitude Quake Shakes Whitehouse Station, Felt Across the East Coast

Did you feel the ground shake just before 11 a.m. today?

As a 4.8 magnitude earthquake sounded the alarm in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, some people in our area reported feeling the tremors.
Nikki Mayhue was at work in Colchester when she felt a tremor.

“I was sitting at my desk when I suddenly felt dizzy, and I looked at my coworker, who asked if I was okay, and I asked her if she was okay and if everything else was moving. “[She said] yes,” Mayhue said. According to the United States Geological Survey, while earthquakes in New York and New Jersey are uncommon, feeling an earthquake far away from the source is entirely conceivable on the East Coast when they do occur.

Skytracker Meteorologist Alex Wasilenko adds that because the bedrock along the East Coast is much older, the earthquakes and vibrations can be felt from a greater distance, including Northern New York, Vermont, and even New Hampshire. “Typically, we see a very small magnitude earthquake once a year in our neck of the woods, but one of this magnitude is certainly going to be felt closer to home because of the sheer size and strength of the quake.”

The USGS reports that the earthquake occurred at 10:43 a.m. The tremors rattled buildings and knocked items from shelves in the Big Apple and the Garden State.

Another woman in Colchester reported that her reclining chair began to rock and a light pole started swaying. “My heart started racing and things were starting to rattle all around,” she went on to say.

One New York woman said she thought her massage chair turned on by itself, but she later discovered she was feeling the earthquake’s vibrations.

According to Paul Earle of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center, earthquakes on the East Coast are felt four to five times further than similar-sized quakes on the West Coast due to the way seismic waves travel.

“You have many components that play into just how much shaking people experience,” says Earle. “That includes the type of ground that they’re on. So, soft ground would shake more. Importantly, the structure that they’re in; if you’re driving in a car, you’re less likely to feel it; if you’re in a bed, you’re more likely to feel it; and it can change depending on whether you’re in a multi-story building and which floor you’re on.”

According to the USGS, the earthquake lasted barely a second or two at the source, although other users on social media reported feeling the shakes for 20 to 30 seconds.

The USGS does not yet know what triggered the earthquake.