People in Boston and elsewhere in Massachusetts reported feeling shaking on Friday morning, possibly from an earthquake that shook the New York City area.
The earthquake, with a 4.8 magnitude, was centered in northern New Jersey, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which tracks earthquakes. But shaking was felt across the Northeast, and beyond, according to the USGS. People in Maine and even Canada reported feeling the temblor.
"Today is exciting and insane all at the same time," said Professor john Eble, a senior research scientist at the Weston Observatory. "I looked at it and said, oh my goodness, 4.8. New Jersey, wow. That is a big earthquake."
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It wasn't just Eble that felt that way, either.
There were coffee mugs shaking in Lowell.
Sarah Whalen Winter says she felt it in a Boston suburb, and Miles Howard felt it sitting at home in Jamaica Plain.
"I felt all of a sudden like, am I going to pass out?," Winter said. "I thought for sure it was internally me, and then I was like oh crap, it is the house."
"At first I thought that one of my housemates was doing some kind of a DIY project involving sawing," Howard said.
The earthquake was initially calculated as having a magnitude of 4.8, then downgraded to 4.7, before being brought back to a 4.8 — a measurement on the Richter scale. It's common for the magnitude of earthquakes to be reassessed in the minutes after they take place.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was collecting damage reports, the agency shared.
There were no major reports of damage in Boston, and that is by design. The experts tell us that building codes here were updated in 1975 to make buildings better protected from earthquakes -- code that has been updated several times since.
"We already had a Nor'easter, we have an eclipse coming next week, who had earthquake on their bingo card?" Winter joked.
The USGS reported later Friday that a 4.0-magnitude aftershock was registered just after 6 p.m. ET near Gladstone, N.J. There was no immediate word if that was also felt across parts of the Northeast.
Do you have surveillance video that captured shaking in Friday's earthquake? Send it to shareit@nbcboston.com.
President Joe Biden was briefed on Friday morning's quake and the federal government was monitoring any possible impacts, the White House said.
While shaking was felt across the Northeast, Friday's earthquake was far less powerful than the deadly one that recently struck Taiwan.
The Richter scale is logarithmic — a magnitude 5 earthquake is far more powerful than a magnitude 4, for example.
The earthquake took place on the Ramapo fault line, and the shaking was felt very far away because the rock in the area is older and denser.
