What to Know
- The mystery of shaking on Roosevelt Island was solved after the USGS reported a magnitude 1.7 earthquake in Astoria, Queens.
- New York has experienced over 550 recorded quakes since the 1700s, according to the NESEC.
- Quakes occur along fault lines or are fractures in Earth's crust and are inevitably happening every day around the world.
New York City dwellers were abruptly awoken at the crack of dawn on Tuesday by an escalating, rumbling vibration that sirened a rush of police cars and fire trucks.
What sounded the alarms for a possible explosion turned into a minor earthquake, a seemingly foreign experience to New Yorkers, but what turns out to be nature running its course.
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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude 1.7 earthquake occurred at 5:45 a.m. Tuesday near Astoria, Queens.
911 operators received calls from Roosevelt Island and Astoria leading to a large firefighting effort, involving 60 fire and medical personnel. The situation was resolved within an hour.
Earthquakes are a result of pressure released in the form of seismic waves from fault lines, or fractures in the Earth's crust. Fault lines are caused by the sliding of the planet's outer shell, or tectonic plates, which are always moving, but at times, get stressed and undergo friction resulting in an energy release, or quake.
News
The truth is that this phenomenon is happening all the time around the world. The National Earthquake Information Center pinpoints approximately 20,000 earthquakes internationally each year and about 55 per day.
Jeffrey Park, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale University, explains what is behind these occurrences.
"The planet that we live on is constantly moving, although very slowly. The Earth has a large mantle that connects all the way from the surface down to the liquid iron core, and that convection is driving motions at the surface that lead to earthquakes wherever the rocks are sufficiently brittle," Park told NBC New York.
Large earthquakes occur at fault zones, or areas of fracture in the Earth's crust, where the rock will break. Most dangerous fault areas are on the West Coast, including California and Washington state.
The USGS states there are 16 major earthquakes in any given year with a range between magnitude 7 and 8. The government's agency records show over the past five decades that the long-term average number of major earthquakes has exceeded about a dozen times.
Residents in Maryland also felt the ground shake on Tuesday after the USGS reported a magnitude 2.3 quake in the city of Rockville. Last Friday, Japan experienced a devastating magnitude 7.6 earthquake leaving nearly 250 people missing.
New York state has experienced over 550 quakes, most in the Adirondack Mountain and western regions, since the record began in the 1700s, based on the Northeast States Emergency Consortium.
Earthquakes have no seasonality and can occur at any time, but mornings and evenings are more likely to see a strike notes the USGS.
Dr. Antonios Marsellos, an associate professor in the Department of Geology, Environment, and Sustainability at Hofstra University, explained that even though New York is sitting on a specific type of plate, earthquakes do happen.
"An earthquake is based on tectonic plates, and New York is sitting on a 'lazy' plate, which is good, meaning we do not have so many earthquakes, but there are other things that happen -- too much rain or drought," said Dr. Marsellos to News 4.
Long periods of flooding can cause water levels to rise leading to possible landslides. Those slides can "lubricate" faults and may account for a higher frequency of quakes, explained Dr. Marsellos.
Dr. Park indicated the continuous rise in sea levels can increase the amount of pressure exerted on the Earth's shelves and coastlines, resulting in mostly scattered and infrequent quakes with long lead times.
The positive takeaway is that experts say there is no need to be alarmed and no elevated quake is expected any time soon.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much. The East Coast has been geologically stable for millions of years," said Dr. Stephen Holler, an associate professor of Physics at Fordham University.
