2.9 magnitude earthquake shakes New Jersey

Published Apr 27, 2024 at 5:45 p.m. ET

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Published Apr 27, 2024 at 5:45 p.m. ET

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A magnitude 2.9 earthquake shook New Jersey on Saturday morning. The temblor was recorded at 9:49 a.m. with an epicenter near Gladstone in Somerset County, located about 50 miles from New York City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Officials with New Jersey’s Office of Emergency Management said they had not received any reports of damage to roads or other infrastructure on Saturday.

The quake came three weeks after a rare 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook the region and was felt across New York City. The seismic event lasted less than a minute but was among the largest earthquakes in the region's recorded history.

That quake didn't result in any structural damage or injuries, but caused visible shaking in the city, temporarily disrupted travel and led Newark to evacuate some residents from their homes due to potential damage.

Seismologists previously warned of potential aftershocks in the region after the initial quake on April 5, and USGS officials deployed five “aftershock kits” in New Jersey to monitor seismic activity. The agency has recorded at least 50 aftershocks ranging from magnitude 1.3 to 3.8 since the April 5 quake.

Jessica Thompson Jobe, a research geologist with the USGS, said in an earlier press release that although the area has no active fault lines, there are older inactive lines that date back millions of years.

“Under the current stresses of tectonic plates moving, those faults can be intermittently reactivated,” Jobe said in a release.

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Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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