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We are home to New Jersey's only travel club. Explore the world and make new friends as you explore the world with like minded people on one of our annual featured trips. Learn more here. 

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Private tours offer personalized experiences just for you and your close travel companions. When we help you organize a private group with New Jersey Group Trips your dedicated group specialist will assist you fom start to end. Learn more here. 

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Step 1 - choose the perfect adventure.

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We take care of all the details you need for a successful trip, including air, transfers, travel protection and visas. For large groups we  provide a dedicated group advisor that will manage everyone's payments, flight information and travel preferences.

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Why the New Jersey earthquake was felt several hundred miles away

Wendy Bohon, an earthquake geologist, was reading a budget report Friday morning at her home in Chesapeake Beach, Md., when she felt the unmistakable light shaking of an earthquake . The cat didn’t wake up. The dog looked around. A plant swayed.

The tremors traveled about 160 miles to Bohon’s home from a 4.8-magnitude earthquake near Whitehouse Station, N.J. It was a moderate earthquake from a geological point of view, with similar-sized quakes happening frequently all over the globe. But it marked a relatively infrequent event on the East Coast — one that jostled people across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast from their daily routines.

More than 150,000 people reported feeling the New Jersey earthquake, some from several hundred miles away, according to the United States Geological Survey , which collects reports of shaking. While the number of reports reflects the population density of the area, it also highlights a fundamental geological difference between the tectonically active West Coast and the East Coast, which is covered by old faults that occasionally get reactivated.

The underlying rock in the East Coast is old, cold and dense, and the faults have had time to heal, meaning that seismic waves travel farther than on the West Coast, where the crust is broken up by faults.

A 4.8-magnitude earthquake “is not generally big enough to cause damage, but big enough to be widely felt,” said Susan Hough, a seismologist with USGS. “Once an earthquake happens, the waves travel more efficiently in the east than in the west — the crust is older, colder and less broken up — that’s something we’ve seen over and over. You put a [4.8] in California, and it won’t be felt nearly as far as this one.”

East Coast earthquakes

Several geologists said that while an earthquake greater than 4 magnitude was not a frequent event on the East Coast, such events aren’t unexpected. In 2017, a 4.1-magnitude earthquake struck near Dover, Del. A 2011 5.8-magnitude earthquake near Mineral, Va., was believed to be felt by more people than any earthquake in U.S. history and resulted in significant damage, including to the Washington Monument and Washington National Cathedral in D.C. A 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck near Reading, Pa., in 1994.

The New Jersey earthquake, which struck at 10:23 a.m. Friday, was relatively shallow, just three miles below the surface. The investigation into the quake will continue, but Christopher Carchedi, a seismologist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, said a common cause of such earthquakes on the East Coast is the shifting of Earth’s surface after being weighed down by ice sheets from the last Ice Age.

“It’s otherwise an inactive fault, readjusting to the loss of the ice, most likely,” Carchedi said.

Hough said the region is generally considered a “passive margin” between North America and the Atlantic Ocean, meaning there’s no active fault or plate boundary. But she notes that one of her colleagues calls it a “passive-aggressive margin — because it will occasionally bite you.”

“Moderate earthquakes in the East are always uncommon enough to be interesting,” Hough said, noting that Friday’s will be intensely studied.

Shaking travels far

As soon as she felt the tremors, Bohon began counting down. Earthquakes unleash multiple kinds of seismic waves that travel through the Earth at different speeds. Measuring the time between the first shaking and the next set of waves can give a rough estimate of how close it was — similar to measuring the time between a flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder.

Bohon got to eight seconds, so she knew that the epicenter of the quake wasn’t very close. Then, she began looking up local seismic reports to make sure she hadn’t imagined it.

I swear I just felt in earthquake in Maryland, — Wendy Bohon, PhD 🌏 (@DrWendyRocks) April 5, 2024

It has long been known that earthquake shaking travels farther on the East Coast than on the West Coast. The USGS says earthquakes can be felt over an area 10 times larger on the East Coast.

On the West Coast, “the rocks are warmer, so they are more active, they’ve experienced activity more recently — so they’re warmer and will attenuate or absorb some of the seismic energy as they pass through that rock,” Carchedi said.

By contrast, the rocks are cold and brittle on the East Coast, and they transfer seismic energy much better than the West Coast.

Friday’s temblor is a reminder, Bohon said, that while people think of earthquakes as a West Coast phenomenon, they can happen anywhere.

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News & features, winter center, news / weather news, 4.8 magnitude earthquake rattles new jersey, new york, connecticut.

People from Massachusetts down through New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut all the way to Philadelphia reported feeling shaking for as long as 30 seconds.

By Monica Danielle , AccuWeather senior producer

Published Apr 5, 2024 7:35 AM PDT | Updated Apr 5, 2024 12:34 PM PDT

Earthquake specialist Dr. Wendy Bohon talks with AccuWeather about the probability of stronger earthquakes in the Northeast and what to do if they happen.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 4.8 earthquake struck near Lebanon, New Jersey. The earthquake struck at 10:23 am EDT. and its epicenter was about 3.1 miles northeast of Lebanon, New Jersey, at a depth of just over half a mile. Lebanon is about 48 miles west of New York City.

Since 2000, there have only been three other earthquakes matching or exceeding today's magnitude of 4.8 in the eastern U.S. (not including earthquakes in Canada and the Atlantic Ocean). The Ramapo Fault runs through Pennsylvania into New Jersey and New York.

People from Massachusetts down through New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut all the way to Philadelphia reported feeling shaking for as long as 30 seconds, many of them taking to X to share their experience.

An earthquake was felt across multiple states in the Northeast as security cameras and phones recorded first reactions to the event.

My dad is a barber in Flanders, NJ. He sent me this video of the earthquake happening while he was cutting hair. Wow! pic.twitter.com/cWdwiJH045 — Riley Winch (@RileyWinchWx) April 5, 2024

Here in #NYC , everyone I’m in touch with in all boroughs, felt #earthquake . Maybe more like 20 seconds of rumbling, shaking — then 10 more of me freaking out wondering if I’m on West Coast. Been through several in SF, East Bay, Wine Country. Today #epicenter nr No Plainfield #NJ — lisa amand (@Imnofoodie) April 5, 2024

New York City resident and employee Catherine Gulotta said her building was shaking and she immediately ran to her bathroom for safety. Other New Yorkers are reporting on X that their buildings were being evacuated as a safety precaution.

The FDNY posted on X that there are no initial reports of damage or injuries.

There were initial delays at regional airports, including Newark, JFK and LaGuardia, as they initiated a 'ground stop' while they inspected buildings and runways. New Jersey Transit rail services reported delays of at least 20 minutes due to bridge inspections after the quake. Amtrak also inspected tracks and restricted train speeds, saying lines throughout the Northeast may be impacted until all inspections are completed.

There's always an aviation angle cc @jonostrower https://t.co/Or9RyxKZgP — Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) April 5, 2024

How does today's earthquake compare with past earthquakes?

This is the strongest in the East since the 2020 North Carolina earthquake, according to the USGS, and the strongest in the Northeast region since a 5.3 quake in northern New York State in 2002. The largest earthquake in New York City history was a 5.2 magnitude in 1884. In New Jersey, this is the strongest earthquake in nearly 250 years and 3rd strongest on record for the state in 280 years of record-keeping (1737-2017). The only 2 stronger ones: a 5.2 mag in 1737 and 5.3 mag in 1783, according to the governor's office . Northern New Jersey is situated above the Ramapo Fault, the longest fault in the Northeast. According to the New Jersey Monthly , "It begins in Pennsylvania and moves into New Jersey, trending northeast through Hunterdon, Somerset, Morris, Passaic, and Bergen counties before terminating in New York’s Westchester County, not far from the Indian Point Energy Center, a nuclear power plant. And though scientists dispute how active this roughly 200 million-year-old fault really is, many earthquakes in the state’s surprisingly varied seismic history are believed to have occurred on or near it."

This is a developing story and AccuWeather will continue to bring you updates .

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Watch CBS News

Earthquake snarls air and train travel in the New York City area

By Megan Cerullo

Edited By Aimee Picchi

Updated on: April 5, 2024 / 4:36 PM EDT / CBS News

An  earthquake  centered in New Jersey and felt across the New York City region on Friday disrupted air and rail travel, with ground stoppages at airports in the New York City area and delays in train service. 

Travel operations were momentarily halted Friday morning with ground stoppages at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens and at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, with crews working to resume normal air traffic operations. By early afternoon, the ground stoppage at JFK had been lifted. 

Arriving and departing flights in Newark also resumed in the afternoon, but delays averaged roughly two hours,  according  to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The earthquake, which occurred roughly 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, had either a 4.7 or 4.8 magnitude and was centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, 40 miles west of New York City,  according to the United States Geological Survey.

Newark airport is experiencing average departure delays of 43 minutes, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Inbound aircraft that are already airborne are delayed by about an hour. Inbound flights that have not yet taken off are being held until 12:30 p.m., according to the site.  

Flights in and out of LaGuardia airport in Queens were also delayed, likely in order for airport staff to check for damage to the airport and runways and clear away any debris. 

The ground stoppages and delays are not expected to last long. 

Additionally, New Jersey Transit said it's experiencing up to 20-minute delays across its entire rail service system, in both directions. NJ Transit said it's inspecting a bridge for damage to ensure train travel is safe. 

—CBS News' Kris Van Cleave contributed reporting.

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News Streaming to discuss her reporting.

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4.8 magnitude earthquake rattles NYC, New Jersey: Live updates

NEW YORK – A 4.8 magnitude earthquake recorded in New Jersey that shook residents in surrounding states and New York City on Friday morning was one of the strongest in state history.

The temblor was reported about 5 miles north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, at about 10:23 a.m. Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 45 miles from New York City, where residents reported shaking furniture and floors.

“Earthquakes in this region are uncommon but not unexpected. It’s likely people near the epicenter are going to feel aftershocks for this earthquake in the magnitude 2-3 range, and there’s a small chance there can be an earthquake as large or larger, following an earthquake like this,” Paul Earle, a seismologist at the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program told reporters. “In terms of our operations, this is a routine earthquake … Immediately we knew this would be of high interest and important to people who don’t feel earthquakes a lot.”

People reported feeling the shaking as far north as Maine and as far south as Norfolk, Virginia, following the quake, according to USGS. Scientists said those in the affected area should listen to local emergency officials and be prepared to seek cover if aftershocks occur.

“If you feel shaking, drop, cover and hold,” Earle said.

No major disruptions or damage have been reported in New Jersey or New York.

"We have activated our State Emergency Operations Center. Please do not call 911 unless you have an actual emergency," said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

President Joe Biden spoke with Murphy about the earthquake and the White House is monitoring the situation.

“He thinks everything's under control,” Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for a trip to Baltimore. “He’s not too concerned about it, the governor of New Jersey, so things are all right.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the quake was felt throughout New York, and officials are assessing impacts and any potential damage.

In Yonkers, New York, Mayor Mike Spano said City Hall shook but no injuries were reported.

"A few moments ago our entire house shook for about 25 seconds or so here in Mendham, New Jersey," former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said.

USGS is still investigating the exact fault line at the center of Friday’s quake and said it occurred in a region with dozens of fault lines that were more active millions of years ago.

4.0 magnitude aftershock strikes hours after earthquake

Officials in New York and New Jersey alerted residents to an aftershock Friday evening, nearly eight hours after the earthquake.

A 4.0 magnitude aftershock slammed New Jersey at around 6 p.m., with an epicenter about four miles southwest of Gladstone, according to the USGS. New York City’s emergency notification system alerted residents to the aftershock minutes later, urging people to remain indoors and call 911 if injured.

Hochul said there were no reports of serious damage after the aftershock, and officials were continuing to assess critical infrastructure.

The aftershock Friday evening was at least the third that USGS recorded after the quake struck.

As of Friday afternoon, the USGS aftershock forecast predicted a 36% chance of aftershocks at a 3.0 magnitude or higher, an 8% chance of aftershocks at a 4.0 magnitude or higher, and a 1% chance for aftershocks at a magnitude of 5.0 or higher over the next week.

USGS scientists said informal observations can be a big help in understanding earthquakes, especially in a region where they’re less common.

“We encourage people to fill out the ‘Did You Feel It?’ reports on our website,” said Sara McBride, a scientist with the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. “This citizen science project is critical in terms of building our knowledge around earthquakes.”

By midafternoon on Friday, the agency said it had received more than 161,000 reports, and extrapolated that the quake had been felt by millions of people. McBride acknowledged that earthquakes can be nerve-wracking for people who don’t live in seismologically active regions, and said knowledge is power in combatting that discomfort.

“The best thing you can do to relieve any unsettling feelings you might have is to learn how to protect yourself during shaking and how to prepare for earthquakes in the future,” she said.

Man getting vasectomy during earthquake recounts experience

One Horsham, Pennsylvania, man shared his unusual earthquake experience, saying the tremors hit when he was in the middle of receiving a vasectomy.

"The surgeon sort of froze and all of us kind of seemed a bit confused," Justin Allen told USA TODAY . "Even when the surgeon said 'that’s gotta be an earthquake,' I thought he was joking."

Luckily, Allen's doctor was able to resume the procedure after a brief pause, and the rest went off without a hitch. Now recovering at home, Allen said it's an experience no one involved will forget, especially because his social media post about the incident has since gone viral.

"My wife says that 'this is a clear and obvious sign that we should not have any more kids,'" Allen said.

New Jersey resident thought sound from earthquake was an explosion

Madeline Nafus had just finished feeding her 7-week-old baby when, simultaneously, she was thrown off balance and the loudest sound she’d ever heard rang out.

“I thought it was either an explosion or a bombing because of how loud it was,” said Nafus, who lives in Long Valley, New Jersey, a few miles from the earthquake's epicenter. “It was just terrifying.”

Nafus, 29, watched as her light fixtures swung and wine glasses, framed photos and a 6-foot elk head crashed onto the floor. Feeling as if her “house was going to crumble,” she picked up her baby boy, grabbed some blankets and headed outside. Meanwhile, her friend came running downstairs and picked up Nafus’ quivering dog, Olivia, a small golden doodle.

After about 15 seconds, the rumbling went away and only occasional, minor tremors could be felt. Nafus called her husband, who was teaching a golf lesson at the time, and then their 2-year-old’s day care.

“They said the children were all confused and asking a lot of questions but that they were OK,” she said.'

How common are East Coast quakes?

Earthquakes are less frequent in the eastern part of the country than in the west, but they have occurred in every state east of the Mississippi River, according to the USGS.

"Since colonial times people in the New York – Philadelphia – Wilmington urban corridor have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from infrequent larger ones," according to the USGS. "Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the urban corridor roughly twice a century, and smaller earthquakes are felt roughly every two to three years."

USGS officials also said that even smaller-magnitude quakes are more likely to be felt more widely on the East Coast than similar size quakes on the West Coast due to the rock properties of eastern soil, which can cause concern to East Coasters not used to the tremors.

Rocks in the eastern part of the country are much older than in the west, by up to millions of years. Those older rocks have been exposed to more extreme temperatures and pressure, and faults have had more time to heal. Seismic waves travel across the resulting harder and denser faults much more efficiently, so the effects of a quake are felt across a larger area. In the West, faults are newer and absorb more of the seismic wave energy without spreading as far.

Quake felt in Massachusetts

In Auburn, Massachusetts, more than 200 miles from the earthquake's epicenter, Jerry Steinhelper was on a video call for work when his house began to tremble. His dog Maize started barking, and books and trinkets fell from their shelves. He looked out the window and saw trees shaking.

“I thought at first it may be ice falling off the roof. But it kept going and the entire house was shaking,” he told USA TODAY. “Then I just knew it was an earthquake.”

Steinhelper, 55, lived in San Diego in the 1980s and experienced temblors there, but he’s never felt one in Massachusetts, where he’s been for over 25 years.

“It was an interesting 10 to 15 seconds,” he said.

'It felt like a plane crashed outside' near epicenter

Nicole Kravitz, 33, was baking muffins at the cafe she co-owns with her husband in New Jersey when the floor began to shake. She and the cooks looked at each other for a few moments, and then at some stacked plates and glasses that had started vibrating.

Their eatery, Branchburg's Best, is located in New Jersey's Somerset County, near the epicenter of Friday’s earthquake.

“It felt like a plane crashed outside,” she said. “No one knew what was happening.”

Some workers ran out the door to see if something had smashed into the building while she checked the basement for damage. Meanwhile, Patrick Tucker, her husband, who was picking up beef from a nearby farm, watched agitated chickens and cows run around in their pens, visibly shaken by the quake.

Kravitz said the intensity of the earthquake made her feel like she was back in Southern California, where she had lived for several years before she returned to her home state in 2016.

Quake was one of the strongest to ever impact New Jersey

Friday's earthquake was the most significant in New Jersey since 1884 , when an Aug. 10 earthquake somewhere near Jamaica Bay, New York, toppled chimneys and moved houses off their foundations as far as Rahway, New Jersey, 30 miles away.

Other than that quake, there were only  three earthquakes in modern history  that caused damage in the state: 1737 (New York City), 1783 (west of New York City) and 1927 (New Jersey coast near Asbury), according to New Jersey Office of Emergency Management records.

The Dec. 19, 1737 earthquake is believed by modern experts to have been a 5.2 magnitude quake. Charted as taking place in the greater New York City area, some accounts say its epicenter was near Weehawken. State records show it threw down chimneys. Chimneys were also hurled down during the Nov. 29, 1783 quake. Estimated at a 5.3 magnitude that originated in modern-day Rockaway Township, according to state records, it was felt from Pennsylvania to New England.

The Aug. 10, 1884 quake, estimated at a 5.2 magnitude was the last the state has seen of its significance and was felt from Virginia to Maine, according to state records.

  Read more about New Jersey's earthquake history.

– David M. Zimmer, NorthJersey.com

New Jersey business owner describes worst quake ever felt but went right back to work

It was a busy day for La Bella Salon & Spa in Lebanon, New Jersey, when an earthquake struck near the rural township.

About a dozen stylists and customers, some whom were getting their hair dyed while others got manicures and eyelash extensions, all froze as the building rattled for about 30 seconds.

“People started to feel the shaking, and it got worse and worse. We were like ‘Oh, my god, what is going on?’" said shop owner Rosanne Drechsel. “I thought a truck hit the building or something.”

After the tremor subsided, nearly everyone in the building started receiving texts and phone calls from friends and family, Drechsel, 61, said.

Nothing was damaged and no one was injured, but Drechsel, who was born and raised in New Jersey, said it was “by far the worst earthquake” she had ever felt.

“We all went back to work and finished the appointments,” she said. “Customers are calling now to see if we're still open and if they can still make their appointments later on today.”

'It was scary': Quake rattles shelves in Brooklyn bodega

In Brooklyn, residents said they felt their buildings shake and many went outdoors after the rumbling stopped to check in with neighbors.

Julio Melo, a deli worker, said he thought the sounds of the earthquake resembled those of a large truck going down the street. But when Melo, 32, looked around and saw beer bottles rattling on store shelves, and a potted plant shimmy down the counter, he thought it might be something bigger, he told USA TODAY.

“I looked at my employee and he had the same tragic face on as me, it was scary,” he said at Jenesis’ Grocery Corp. in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

– Claire Thornton

Where was the earthquake felt?

Residents and officials said the earthquake was felt throughout New York, as well as in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. It was also felt as far away as Cambridge, Massachusetts, about 250 miles away from the reported epicenter.

Charita Walcott, a 38-year-old resident in the Bronx borough of New York, said the quake felt "like a violent rumble that lasted about 30 seconds or so."

"It was kind of like being in a drum circle, that vibration," she said.

Earthquakes common in the region, but the size is unusual: Expert

Chuck Ver Straeten, a geologist and curator of sedimentary rocks at the New York State Museum, told USA TODAY it’s not surprising this earthquake happened where it did.

“New York, around New York City going into New Jersey, there’s a lot of earthquakes historically down there. Happens every year,” he said. But it’s less common for them to be of such a high magnitude. It’s not surprising that many people felt it, he said. Usually, earthquakes in the region are at a lower magnitude and less likely to be felt.

Ver Straeten said the real question now is if this is just a precursor to a larger quake.

“You never know what is the earthquake, what is a pre-earthquake, what is an earthquake happening after the main earthquake, you just have to see,” he said. “One slip along the rock fault, when one happens, it makes other areas around there more tense also and they start to slip and you slip again and slip again.”

But, he added, it would be unlikely for a larger quake to follow this one. In the Northeast, it’s more common for one large quake to be followed by smaller aftershocks, rather than a mounting series of tremors. 

What does magnitude mean in an earthquake?

Magnitude is a measurement of the strength of an earthquake . Officially it's called the Moment Magnitude Scale . It's a logarithmic scale , meaning each number is ten times as strong as the one before it. So a 5.2 earthquake is moderate while a 6.2 is strong.

The magnitude and effect of an earthquake, according to Michigan Technological University :

◾ Below 2.5: Generally not felt

◾ 2.5 to 5.4: Minor or no damage

◾ 5.5 to 6.0: Slight damage to buildings

◾ 6.1 to 6.9: Serious damage

◾ 8.0 or greater: Massive damage, can totally destroy communities

Intensity scales, measured in Roman numerals, are used to describe how strong the earthquake felt to people in the area.

According to the California Earthquake Authority , an intensity of I is typically felt only under especially favorable conditions. A IV, which leads to light shaking, is felt indoors by many, but not typically outdoors. It might awaken some people at night and lead to a sensation like a truck striking a building. A parked car would rock. Intensities VI and above would be strong, frightening and felt by all, with the damage increasing up to a X where the shaking would be violent. Some well-built wooden structures would be destroyed and most masonry and frame structures along with their foundations would be ruined.

While you might have heard the term " the Richter Scale " used to describe earthquakes, it is no longer commonly used because it was only valid for certain earthquake frequencies and distance ranges.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Contributing: Reuters

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