East Coast Can’t Catch a Break

As the east coast continues to pick up the mess left behind from Super-storm Sandy, New Jersey got a small, but interesting wakeup call on Monday morning. At 1:19am a 2.0 magnitude earthquake centered in Ringwood, NJ woke residents with a loud boom. This area still has damages and power outages from Sandy, so thankfully no damages from the earthquake have been reported. Being that this event occurred only a week after Sandy came through and devastated the east coast, many people wondered if this earthquake was caused by last week’s events.

According to Becky Oskin of Discovery News, “Even the second-most powerful hurricane on record can't cause an earthquake.” Geophysicist John Ebel also added, “It's very possible that the earthquake this morning would have occurred anyway even if we hadn't had Sandy come through.” Though researchers have documented cases where flooding caused an earthquake, these instances occurred when filling of large reservoirs behind dams (at least 100ft of water) were seen. Being that the storm surge of Sandy was about 10ft, the conditions do not look favorable to blame Sandy for the small quake.  

As if Hurricane Sandy and this minor earthquake didn’t cause enough chaos, the east coast is now preparing for a strong nor’easter heading their way. This weather is expected to hit the east coast tomorrow and Thursday; stay tuned to my blog posts to see what happens.

For more information, visit:

Minor Earthquake Shakes New Jersey

Did Sandy Cause New Jersey Earthquake?

New Jersey Geological and Water Survey