New York earthquake: NYC rattled by quake with magnitude of 4.8 on Richter scale

Brooklyn residents heard a booming sound and felt their building shaking

A general view of Central Park and the Manhatten skyline in New York .Photo: Joel Ryan/PA

An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area on Friday morning, the US Geological Survey said, with residents reporting they felt rumbling across the north east of the country.

The agency reported a quake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.7, centred near Lebanon, New Jersey, or about 45 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia.

The Fire Department of New York said there were no initial reports of damage.

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 felt their building shaking.

In an apartment house in Manhattan’s East Village, a resident from more earthquake-prone California calmed nervous neighbours.

People in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Connecticut and other areas of the East Coast unaccustomed to earthquakes also reported feeling the ground shake.

New York governor Kathy Hochul posted on X that the quake was felt throughout the state.

“My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” Ms Hochul said.

The shaking stirred memories of the August 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 the Second World War. The epicentre 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.