A small, 2.2 magnitude earthquake rattled the lower Hudson Valley and parts of northeast New Jersey early Friday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
According to NBCNY, The earthquake hit about a mile south of Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County (about three miles north of Yonkers) at 1:53 a.m., at a depth of 9.8 kilometers, the USGS said.
The town is just over 16 miles away from midtown Manhattan, so it’s possible some in or very close to New York City may have felt a shake!
Several took to social media to report a rumble that woke them up in the middle of the night — including NBC New York’s Natalie Pasquarella, who felt the rumble at her home in Bergen County.
There were no initial reports of injuries or damages to structures in the New York metropolitan area. Some residents took to social media early Friday to describe the tremor. One man tweeted the noise sounded like an explosion.
While earthquakes are rare, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in 2011 caused millions in structural damage to buildings in Washington, D.C., Maryland and in Virginia, where it was centered. Experts say earthquakes below 2.0 on the Richter scale are rarely felt.
The New York earthquake occurred about the same time as a significantly stronger 7.7 magnitude earthquake resulted in a small tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, according to the USGS.
