Maryland, DC, and New York residents began the New Year being rocked by two separate small earthquakes of 2.3 and 1.7 magnitude respectively.
According to the Maryland Geological Survey, the epicenter of the earthquake felt in Maryland and DC was near Rockville. Tremors were also felt in Gaithersburg.
The depth of the earthquake was estimated to be 15 kilometers and hit at 12.51 am on Tuesday. Officials confirmed there were no injuries or property damage reported.
At 5.45 am, Roosevelt Island residents reported being woken up to at least ‘three instances of a boom and a shake’, with the third vibration being ‘felt further away’. Officials later confirmed that a 1.7 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Astoria, Queens, had hit the city.
The depth was reported to be five kilometers and the NYC Emergency Management said no injuries had been reported. It has not been clarified if the two earthquakes were related.
Rebecca Kavage Adams, a lead geologist at the Maryland Geological Survey, told WTOP the agency did not know what caused the earthquake in Maryland.
Officials in New York also did not clarify why tremors had been felt across the city. People around Rockville said the quake barely shook their houses and sounded like a thunderstorm.
One user wrote on Twitter: ‘I didn’t feel it but heard what I thought was a big jet overhead at the time of the quake.’ A second wrote: ‘Rattled our house here in Rockville for a few seconds.’
Another said: ‘Sounded like thunder rumbling here and woke up the dog, and the dog woke me up’.
But while Rockville was barely shaken, firefighters in New York responded to reports of an explosion and buildings shaking in Roosevelt Island, Manhattan and Queens.
EMS personnel claimed FDNY crews were investigating ‘multiple maintenance hole fires’ this morning. NYPD said the blast could have been caused by a transformer – a device which transfers electric energy from one circuit to another while decreasing the voltage
