New Jersey - small earthquake after Hurricane Sandy

This morning, New Jersey had a small earthquake. It was only a 2.0.
It was centered in Ringwood, NJ, and was felt in surrounding areas. There was shaking, but no reported damage.

Although this was just a small earthquake, the timing seems concerning, considering the area is still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Residents reported hearing a loud boom before the earthquake.

Is there any chance that the flooding caused instability?
Or is there something else going on?

abcnews.go.com...

Type: Earthquake
9 hours ago
Magnitude: 2
DateTime: Monday November 5 2012, 06:19:11 UTC
Region: New Jersey
Depth: 5 km
Source: USGS Feed

quakes.globalincidentmap.com...

Not very big, but not deep either.Something seems to be lurking lol just what we'll have to wait and see.

This looks like it was likely close to the Ramapo Fault.

This fault line goes through New York, New Jersey, and Eastern PA.
I wonder if the flooding underground, in subways, etc, might have compromised the fault.

www.state.nj.us...

This fault line is also near the Indian Point nuclear power plant

it's possible the extra weight of water that we had could have caused a small movement like this, especially if it occurred in just the right areas already under more stress than others.

NJ Native (and currently on day 7 without power... could be worse, we still have our home and no one in our family was hurt or displaced)

There was very little precipitation in northern NJ with Sandy. Most of the heavy rain was to the south of the eye of the storm ... areas like southern NJ, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, got the heavy flooding rains.

Only coastal areas of Northern NJ were flooded (with the exception of Moonachie and Little Ferry which were flooded by a damn that broke in the wind).

Ringwood and surrounding areas are all high elevation and experienced no flooding.

While this is uncommon, it's not unusual. The Ramapo fault see's occasional activity ... there was even like a 4.0 o a 5.0 when was a kid 30 years ago.

lets face it, if any intelligent species watched an episode of "jersey shore" with snooki and the bunch, and you had the power to destroy worlds, would you not start there in jersey? thats all im saying

Originally posted by BlueAjah
This morning, New Jersey had a small earthquake. It was only a 2.0.
It was centered in Ringwood, NJ, and was felt in surrounding areas. There was shaking, but no reported damage.

Although this was just a small earthquake, the timing seems concerning, considering the area is still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Residents reported hearing a loud boom before the earthquake.

Is there any chance that the flooding caused instability?
Or is there something else going on?

abcnews.go.com...

Again with the loud booms? What's with the sonic booms and fireballs, earthquakes.... sigh.. i'm beginning to think the bible thumpers are right.

reply to post by AJ1123TKE


I hope you are recovering from the power outage and damage!

Regarding the location:

This earthquake is very close to the flooded areas. Although the levels are elevated, I think the flood surge might still be a factor.
Think of fracking on steroids?

I just hope this earthquake is an isolated incident, and not a sign of more damaging earth fracturing.

I definitely think its connected! Last year in Queensland, there were a couple of low mag quakes after cyclone Yasi passed through, I'll see if I can hunt down a link its got to have something to do with the extra stress and saturation of the ground from all that water!

Ok it was 2 months after Yasi, not a week like NJ. Here's the link anyways link