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M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

earthquake.usgs.gov

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Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#241

Post by ancientworldnow »

georgeecollins wrote: post #203
scrumper wrote: post #104

Felt that very strongly in southern Westchester county NY. Not like the 2011 earthquake I felt in NYC, which was kind of slow and made the building I was in sway violently; this was more like the vibrations from a huge truck passing nearby, but more intense. Loud and very unpleasant, about 15 seconds duration. Did not like that at all, am now inspecting all our services like gas and water for disruption, checking for…

As a native Californian this provokes a bit of a chuckle. Try a six plus sometime! But seriously, I hope everything is fine.

The geology of the east coast makes earthquakes about ten times more intense (according to usgs) so this is similar to a west coast high five.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#242

Post by bertil »

bickeringyokel wrote: post #213

Reading this on the toilet now wondering what my priorities would be if there was a quake in the next couple minutes.

That one is easy: You won’t shock anyone if you show up at the hospital with dirty underwear. You don’t want a trauma surgeon to say that they have to page the neuro-chir. Get under a doorframe, and put your pants up when your head is safe.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#243

Post by ancientworldnow »

guluarte wrote: post #25
altdataseller wrote: post #4

Didn’t even feel at all? Was in Queens, NY, strangely a couple of people around me felt it though

4.7 is literally nothing

East coast geology (older, harder rocks) causes earthquakes to feel about ten times stronger than a west coast earthquake. This is felt roughly the same as a 5.8 in California. That's enough to be notable, especially at a shallow depth.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#245

Post by mtalantikite »

bee_rider wrote: post #207

If any west-coasters are confused as to how this is news: the Northeast is sort of geologically unusual for the US in that we have almost no surprising, sudden weather thingies. No tornados, mild thunderstorm, occasional hurricanes (but they are usually weakened a bit compared to, like, Florida by the time they get up here and they’ve spent a long time going up the coast so they tend to be well tracked by forecasters…

Yeah, our reaction to this here is reminding me of what happens when Oregon or Atlanta gets an inch of snow. An earthquake (that is felt) is just not something that we experience often.

I remember when Atlanta got 2" and people were literally abandoning their cars on highways [1], whereas in the northeast people are out driving in blizzards.

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/01/30/268720258...

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#246

Post by baq »

chimeracoder wrote: post #235
tzakrajs wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a Nor'easter?

> What is a Nor'easter? Literally: a cold hurricane. Some people misuse the term to mean "a blizzard affecting New England and/or the Northeast", but it actually specifically refers to a storm that's been pushed inland by sea winds coming from the northeast, off the Atlantic Ocean. That specific pattern results in a particularly cold and brutal storm. Nor'easters are technically cyclones, just like hurricanes, and th…

Weather nerds will get very confused by ‘a cold hurricane’ since hurricanes are tropical cyclones and tropical cyclones have a warm core by definition.

…but they’ll be fine with a ‘a big cold cyclone’ I guess ;)

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#247

Post by nickjj »

fullstop wrote: post #230
nickjj wrote: post #221

I felt it on Long Island over 100 miles away. I had headphones on and thought a really heavy truck was shaking the ground. It was enough to make my desk and monitors shake but nothing too crazy.

I live about 20 miles from the epicenter and my neighbors said that their mirrors were shaking and monitors were wobbling. I felt nothing, at all, and my cats didn't move an inch. I'm pretty observant with that sort of thing, so I'm a bit surprised. Is it even possible for someone a few houses away to experience drastically different seismic activity? Edit: I was on the ground floor, which is likely why I did not fee…

If my eyes were closed I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between it and a washing machine running on a floor below you. I really only noticed it because my monitors were wobbling a decent amount.

> Is it even possible for someone a few houses away to experience drastically different seismic activity?

I'm not sure but there's probably variables around how sturdy things are (the foundation, floor, walls, desk, monitors, etc.). If I tap the side of my desk with the force of a golf clap the monitor wobble factor it about equal to the earthquake. I know in the US it's funny to measure things with weird units but that's the best I can do to associate the amount of force.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#248

Post by lxgr »

bee_rider wrote: post #207

If any west-coasters are confused as to how this is news: the Northeast is sort of geologically unusual for the US in that we have almost no surprising, sudden weather thingies. No tornados, mild thunderstorm, occasional hurricanes (but they are usually weakened a bit compared to, like, Florida by the time they get up here and they’ve spent a long time going up the coast so they tend to be well tracked by forecasters…

NYC seems to have been taken quite by surprise by a storm last September.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#249

Post by itishappy »

cmollis wrote: post #220
bee_rider wrote: post #207

If any west-coasters are confused as to how this is news: the Northeast is sort of geologically unusual for the US in that we have almost no surprising, sudden weather thingies. No tornados, mild thunderstorm, occasional hurricanes (but they are usually weakened a bit compared to, like, Florida by the time they get up here and they’ve spent a long time going up the coast so they tend to be well tracked by forecasters…

we've had tornadoes in NJ..

We get about one a decade in upstate NY.
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