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Small Earthquake Rattles New Jersey

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By TRYMAINE LEE

Published: February 3, 2009

A small earthquake hit northern New
Jersey late Monday night, according to seismologists. No one was reported to
have been injured.

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Residents likened the earthquake, which struck just after 10:30 p.m., to
everything from “a bomb” to an underground explosion to “a thump.”

The epicenter of the quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 3.0, was
reported at Victory Gardens, although it could be felt in Rockaway, Dover and
Morris Plains, according to Won-Young Kim, a seismologist for the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory, in Palisades, N.Y.

The communities near the earthquake’s epicenter are in Morris County, about
35 miles west of Midtown Manhattan.

While 3.0 is a rather large earthquake for the metropolitan New York region,
a temblor of that magnitude is unlikely to cause any major damage, Mr. Kim
said.

Workers at an Exxon Station in Rockaway, N.J., said that the night was going
along normally when the earthquake struck.

“It was like a bomb, a strong one,” said Cafer Sahin, 40, an attendant.

Tom Smaga, 27, was working inside the station when, he said, he first heard
and then felt the earthquake.

“It was a loud boom and after that it shook the whole building,” Mr. Smaga
said. He said the vibrations lasted for about two or three seconds.

Toni Dellamonica, a dispatcher for the Rockaway Township Police Department,
said that there had been no reports of injuries or major damage.

Ms. Dellamonica said the earthquake felt like “a rolling rumble,” as if
someone was dragging something across the ground.

In Dover, N.J., near the quake’s epicenter, Francis Rodriguez was playing
cards with a friend when, she said, “it felt like something exploded
underground.”

The shaking did not damage her house, she said, but her friend, Cheryll Post,
who was visiting Ms. Rodriguez, said “it was very scary.” Patricia Avila, was in
her second-floor apartment in Rockaway, N.J., when she felt what she described
as “a loud thump.”

“It was just a bang,” Walter Michalski, a police officer in Dover, N.J., said
of Monday’s earthquake. “That’s it. A bang.”

Peter Johnson, a dispatcher for the Morris Plains Police department, said “I
wasn’t sure what it was. It was just a shaking.”

Mr. Kim of Lamont-Doherty said that low-level earthquakes are not unusual
near that area.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 2 hit Phillipsburg, N.J., on July 28. A 2.6
magnitude quake struck Sussex County, N.J., on Feb. 17, 2006, and another quake,
with a magnitude of 2.1, hit Morris County on Dec. 10, 2005.

Nate Schweber contributed
reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 4, 2009
Because of an
editing error, an article in some editions on Tuesday about a small earthquake
in New
Jersey misidentified the area of the state that it struck. It was
northern New Jersey, not central.

More Articles in New
York Region » A version of this article appeared in print on February
3, 2009, on page A25 of the New York edition.

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Past Coverage

Metro
Briefing | New Jersey: Hamburg: No Major Damage As Small Earthquake
Strikes (February 17, 2006)

ASIA'S
DEADLY WAVES: NEW YORK REGION; Taking Their Grief and Aid to Local
Temples (December 28, 2004)

BRIEFINGS:
ENVIRONMENT; MINOR EARTHQUAKE RECORDED (August 31, 2003)

Metro
Briefing | New Jersey: Minor Quake Felt In Two States (August
27, 2003)

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