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3.1 magnitude earthquake hits New Jersey, USGS says

Posted at 10:31 AM, Sep 09, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-09 10:46:11-04

EAST FREEHOLD, N.J. — A 3.1 magnitude earthquake was detected Wednesday morning in the Central New Jersey town of Freehold, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The USGS detected the quake around 2 a.m. while the National Weather Service referred to the quake as a "small tremor" despite that it was felt in much of Central Jersey.

The depth of the quake was reported as about 3.1 miles. There are no reports yet of any damage or injuries due to the earthquake.

Hundreds of reports were coming in from as far as Philadelphia and Long Island, New York on the USGS' "Did You Feel It?" map.

Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden said that about 125 non-emergency and 911 calls came in from residents who reported feeling and hearing the quake.

Twitter user @BWf34, in Freehold, said it "felt like an explosion, then shaking. No obvious damage to house. Woke up the entire family."

Twitter user @arorasa, in East Windsor, said the "whole house shook. It's been an hour now, but still feeling rattled."

Geophysicist Robert Sanders from the USGS said that a 3.1 quake is unlikely to have caused anything more than damaged shelves or falling picture frames.

He said there had been just two other quakes over 3.0 magnitude in the area since 1970.

The last recorded earthquake in New Jersey before Wednesday was a 1.7 magnitude quake on Aug. 17 in Milford, New Jersey, according to the Northeast States Emergency Consortium.

The strongest quake with an epicenter in New Jersey was a magnitude 4.8 earthquake back on Aug. 23, 1938, near Trenton.

This story was originally published by Stephen M. Lepore and Katie Corrado on WPIX in New York.