Earthquake rattles central New Jersey, 45 miles west of NYC
NEW YORK — A 2.9 magnitude earthquake rattled areas surrounding northern Somerset County, New Jersey, Saturday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The small earthquake was recorded at 8:49 a.m. near Peapack-Gladstone, a borough in the Somerset Hills region, located approximately 45 miles west of New York City, officials said.
About 700 residents in the area contacted the USGS to report they felt “weak” to “light” shaking across 94 ZIP codes, though no damage was reported.
One person on X described the earthquake as “loud.”
At around 12:30 p.m., the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management said in a statement there were no reports of “damage to structures, roadways, or infrastructure.”
It was not immediately clear if the quake was an aftershock from the 4.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the Tri-State area earlier this month.
USGS officials said approximately 42 million people in the area felt the earth shake for several seconds just before 10:30 a.m. on April 5 — an unfamiliar sensation for New Yorkers, described by Gov. Kathy Hochul as “a very unsettling day, to say the least.”
Dozens of aftershocks were felt in the days following the earthquake, the third-worst to hit the region in 240 years.