Earthquake centered near New York City rattles the Northeast

NEW YORK — An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area Friday morning, with residents across the Northeast reporting rumbling in a region unaccustomed to it.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a quake at 10:23 a.m. with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, or about 45 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia. The agency’s figures indicated that the quake might have been felt by more than 42 million people.

People from Baltimore to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border reported feeling the ground shake. While there were no immediate reports of serious damage, officials were checking bridges and other major infrastructure, Amtrak slowed trains throughout the busy Northeast Corridor, and a Philadelphia-area commuter rail line suspended service out of what it said was “an abundance of caution.”

In midtown Manhattan, the usual cacophony of traffic grew louder as motorists blared their horns on momentarily shuddering streets. Some Brooklyn residents heard a booming sound and their building shaking. In an apartment house in Manhattan’s East Village, a resident from more earthquake-prone California calmed nervous neighbors.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, the shaking interrupted the chief executive of Save The Children, Janti Soeripto, as she briefed an emergency Security Council session on the threat of famine in Gaza and the Israeli drone strikes that killed aid workers there.

“Is it an earthquake?” Soeripto wondered aloud, then asked if it was all right to go ahead. She did, but soon diplomats’ phones blared with earthquake alerts.

The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the earthquake and was “in touch with federal, state, and local officials as we learn more.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said key infrastructure in New York state is being assessed for potential damage. So far, no damage has been reported on bridges and tunnels as well as at the defunct nuclear plant Indian Point on the Hudson River in Westchester County.

A ground stop at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport was in effect after the earthquake, she said. So far, no damage or “life-threatening situations” have been reported, Hochul said.

Hochul has also spoken with federal Homeland Security officials to discuss the quake. State officials are monitoring for potential aftershocks.

“It’s been a very unsettling day to say the least,” she said. “Right now it’s most important we have our structural engineering teams surveying our bridges, our roads, any area where there could be a fault line not readily visible.”

At noon, New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a press briefing flanked by agency heads including the commissioners of the police, buildings, fire and emergency management departments. The head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s subways but is governed by the state, was also on hand.

While no damage or injuries had been reported, officials said the city experienced a spike in calls to its 911 and non-emergency lines and that further inspections of critical infrastructure would be forthcoming.

“New Yorkers should go about their normal day,” Adams said. “First responders are working to make sure the city is safe, and one thing we do so well in our city is bring together all of the agencies that are involved and our partners.”

New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell posted on social media shortly after the quake, wondering "what the hell was happening."

"Was there just an earthquake?" queried New York Rep. Ritchie Torres on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The shaking stirred memories of the Aug. 23, 2011, earthquake that jolted tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada. Registering magnitude 5.8, it was the strongest quake to hit the East Coast since World War II. The epicenter was in Virginia.

That earthquake left cracks in the Washington Monument, spurred the evacuation of the White House and Capitol and rattled New Yorkers three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Earthquakes are less common on this side of the U.S. because the East Coast does not lie on a boundary of tectonic plates. But East Coast quakes can still pack a punch — its rocks are better at spreading earthquake energy across far distances.

“If we had the same magnitude quake in California, it probably wouldn’t be felt nearly as far away,” said U.S.G.S. geophysicist Paul Caruso.

Joe Anuta and Olivia Alafriz contributed to this report.