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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer, on WNYC. All right. Who felt it? Did anything happen where you are? Well, we have right now is just this. This is from CBS News. A 4.8 earthquake. That's a preliminary number, but that's high for this area. 4.8 on the Richter scale earthquake, rattled New York City and the surrounding area. This says the quake was centered near Lebanon, New Jersey, so that's about 40 miles west of the city. Wherever you are, help us report this story. What did you feel, and is there any damage or anything else? Let's see. We're going to start with Jim in Jefferson, New Jersey. Jim, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Jim: Good morning, Brian. It's a pleasure to be on. It's exciting, and [crosstalk]--

Brian Lehrer: What happened where you are? First of all, where is Jefferson in relation to let's say, New York City or Newark, so people know where you are, and then tell us what you felt?

Jim: We are in northern Morris County. I'm about just under an hour outside of New York City. We're more or less straight-out Route 80, and a little north on Route 15. In 2004, I experienced the earthquake when I was in Dover, and this one was much louder, much more shaking, and much longer. It lasted, in our area, probably 15 to 20 seconds, and the other one was 5 to 10, so, it was quite a bit longer. It left my wife feeling disoriented, lightheaded. My office is in Riverdale, New Jersey, which is about 20 miles away, and they felt it as well.

I just heard that it centered in Lebanon, and my brother-in-law, my wife's brother and his wife live the next town over. Now I need to call them and see how they did.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Thank you, Jim. It sounds like you didn't have any damage there and no injuries, but thank you very much for checking in.

As far as how far and why this is being felt, I will just tell you folks, that we're getting calls already from as far east as Oyster Bay on Long Island, and as far north as John, who we're going to talk to next up in Hudson, New York, south of Albany. John, you're on WNYC. Hello.

John: Oh, hi. Yes. We're up in Hudson, New York. We felt the house shaking, and we just really didn't know what was going on. I think it lasted maybe 20 seconds.

Brian Lehrer: Any damage or anything?

John: No, no, nothing that I have noticed. Just coincidentally, I was just asking some friends who are longtime residents up here.-- We go back and forth between upstate New York City, if we're on any kind of a fault line, and they were saying that the possibility of an earthquake was very small, that there is a fault line, but it's very minor, so it's just a crazy coincidence.

Brian Lehrer: John, thank you very much. A listener in Huntington says the house was shaking. Texts here, oh, boy, they're really coming in. Well, I can't even read these texts. They're coming in so fast, so we're going to go to another call. Here's Sandra in Oyster Bay. Hi, Sandra. You're on WNYC Hello.

Sandra: Hello. I'm from Oyster Bay. My son and I were in Hicksville, in a one-story house, and we thought that somebody was running around the attic, but there was no attic. My husband said that he thought the boiler was exploding. Our dog was very disturbed by it. It was about 20 seconds. It was really long.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, we're getting 20, 30 seconds from a lot of people. A few people are saying it felt like- and I didn't experience this- it felt like an explosion at first, and then the shaking. Did you hear anything or feel anything that you would describe as an explosion, or the feeling of an explosion?

Sandra: It didn't really feel that way. It felt more like somebody had just jumped on the roof of the house or on the floor of the house really loud, or a car driven into the house. It was just an instant impact and then rumbling.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Sandra. Well, at least so far from our callers, we're not getting any reports of damage or injury. Of course, if anybody did have major damage or injury or worse, they wouldn't be calling to talk show, they'd be dealing with it. Another listener from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. We're going to add another state to this earthquake area, Bucks County, about 40 miles from the epicenter in Tewksbury, New Jersey, "Like a heavy helicopter landing on the roof," writes that person. Let's go to Scott in Hackensack. Scott, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Scott: Hey, Brian. Yes, I'm in Hackensack on the ninth floor of an apartment. We have train tracks right next to the apartment, so we'd normally experience a little bit of shaking, especially on a windier day, but it took me two seconds to be like, "This is not normal shaking." I grabbed my dogs-- I'm working from home today, but I grabbed my dogs and just split, just in case, because I don't know. I've been from this area my whole life, so I don't know if there's going to be more or if that was an overreaction, but it's better safe than sorry.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, that caused you to leave your building. Did you say you live on the ninth floor?

Scott: Yes, I live on the ninth floor, so the shaking was definitely a lot. My TV was shaking, the shelves were shaking, so I just got out of there.

Brian Lehrer: Hang in there, Scott. Thank you very much. Yes, that's a good question. We're trying to get a seismologist or somebody on the phone who can answer questions about this at the scientific level. I guess one of the questions would be after the shock, are there risks of an aftershock, or could something even stronger than what was just felt be coming behind it? I'm going to absolutely be honest here and say I have absolutely no idea, but we're getting reports from all over the area.

Here's another one that says- let's see. Someone else writes that they heard from relatives in New Canaan, Connecticut. We're going from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, up to the New Canaan Connecticut area. This is a wide swath already. Let's see what else I can pull up here. No, nothing more than I'm seeing online. I'll tell you what? It looks like we do have an expert ready to go. We're going to take a break. We're just going to take a minute here and set up this guest who our crack-producing staff has lined up in an instant, and talk about what we know. Stay with us.

We'll continue to take your calls and texts on the earthquake that has hit the New York metropolitan area based in Jersey around 40 miles west of the city is where they think the epicenter was stated. Stay tuned.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer, on WNYC as we're continuing to try to figure out what just happened here, with an earthquake that's being initially reported as a preliminary number as 4.8 on the Richter scale, hitting the whole New York metropolitan area. Here's somebody else texting in, who also left their building, like the caller from Hackensack did, as a precaution.

Listener writes, "Definitely felt the earthquake in Riverdale, in the Bronx, because I used to live next to the building that collapsed in Miami-- remember that? I assumed it was a building collapse. My friend on the next floor whose family is in Israel was convinced it's a terror attack." There's no indication that it's a terror attack. This listener writes, "We all imagine the thing we are most afraid of, I guess." Fair point.

Listener writes, "I took the dogs and left the building as a precaution." Anybody else listening right now outside your building, because you wanted to get out of there as quick as you can, because you didn't know what was going to happen next? To be very clear, as that listener was candid about reporting what some people's fears were upon feeling this, it is not a terrorist attack, if that has occurred to anybody.

According to geologists, it's already being reported that there was an earthquake just now, or just a few minutes ago, in the New York metropolitan area. Again, the preliminary number that we're being told is 4.8 on the Richter scale. We're going to get an update on that, sure, as they figure it out more precisely.

Listener writes, "This is Barbara in Mineola. I live in a four-storey building and it was very frightening. Books were falling off my shelves, and it lasted about 20 seconds. Very unnerving." That's the first report that we're getting of even something like books falling off shelves, that it was strong enough for that. This was now practically a half hour ago. It happened at 10:23 AM. Let's see what it felt like to Randall in Toms River. Randall, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Randall: Good morning. Yes, I'm down in Toms River about an hour north of Atlantic City, and it felt like a huge truck was out front. The whole house was shaking and I went out to look. I have no damage, no books falling off, but I did hear computer lights and so forth blinking. Not only north, but it's coming down here south. I don't know how far south it is, but just wanted to let you know what happened down here.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Randall. Thank you very much. I'm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania down there, not too far from you. Also felt it. We know that. Steve in Brooklyn is going to describe what it was like for him. Hi, Steve, you're on WNYC.

Steve: Oh, hi. I just thought that a truck was going to come through the front of my house. I'm in a single-family house, it's detached. We're having a movie shoot near here, and there are lots of trucks around, so I just thought it was a truck, and then I went out front and there was no truck, so, wow. Amazing.

Brian Lehrer: All right, Steve. Thank you very much. Terry in Cortland Manor, New York, you're on WNYC. Hi, Terry.

Terry: Hi. Yes. I also felt the earthquake. I was on the second floor of my single-family detached house, and I guess, the truck analogy is a good one. At first, I thought it was some really huge truck right in front, and then I realized it must be an earthquake. No damage. Nothing fell off any shelves or anything like that.

I also wanted to mention that we have a fault right by Indian Point here, which I know because some years ago when we were fighting the Algonquin Gas Pipeline expansion, that was a factor in our concern since the pipeline was also going to be running right by Indian Point in that fault. We didn't think that was a great idea.

Brian Lehrer: That's a fair context to bring up here. Certainly, something that was, apparently from everybody calling in and writing in, as mild as it was very unlikely to have caused anything really scary at the nuclear power plant there at Indian Point. Of course, it's always worth mentioning, and I'm sure they're taking a look over there right now at very, very least.

We're being told that the Centers for Disease Control says the people are inside. You should stay inside, but we'll try to get more on that as we have a guest. Now, Alexander Gates, a Rutgers geology professor. Professor Gates, thank you very much for joining us.

Alexander Gates: Oh, my pleasure.

Brian Lehrer: What just happened here?

Alexander Gates: Well, we had a big earthquake. This is maybe probably the biggest instrumental earthquake we've ever had in New Jersey or even in the area. We've had big ones that are estimated to be bigger than this. The last one we had was in 1884 before we had any seismographs. This is the first one this big that we can actually capture on seismographs.

Brian Lehrer: 4.8 is the preliminary number that I've seen in some early media reports. Is that what you have?

Alexander Gates: That's what I've heard, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Give us the context for that. Since people around here don't generally have to pay close attention to the Richter scale, put 4.8 in context for us if you can.

Alexander Gates: Clearly, the killer earthquakes are something above a 7. Those are the ones that we hear about that do a lot of damage. The magnitude, and this is not Richter anymore, that's the old scale. The magnitude scale is the amount of energy released by the earthquake as it goes off. As I said, above a 7 is huge. When you get it in the 5 range, it can do some damage. For example, the one that we had that is estimated at a 5.2 that occurred in 1884, toppled chimneys in Rahway, New Jersey. It was around Jamaica Bay. It toppled a steeple in that area, pulled houses off their foundations. Something in the 5 range in an area that's not used to earthquake can do a fair amount of damage.

Brian Lehrer: Did you feel it where you are? Are you in New Brunswick where the main Rutgers campus is?

Alexander Gates: No. I'm actually out in the field right now. I'm near a road, so I heard some rumbling, but I thought maybe it was a big truck going by, so I really didn't-- if I had been sitting in my house or in my office, I would've said, whoa, there's an earthquake. Here it was like, eh, it felt a little strange, but that was about it.

Brian Lehrer: What causes something like this to happen in this unprecedented way for our area that you described?

Alexander Gates: We have a bunch of faults and there's faults all over the East Coast, but there are faults all across New Jersey. Most of these faults that are active now, they lie east-west or about northwest across the state. Kind of across normally everything in the state goes to the northeast. These cross-cut everything and these faults, because we have residual stresses from plates interacting, basically what happens is that the stress builds up enough along the fault so that it exceeds its strength and the fault crack, basically the rock actually breaks.

What you would hear, like if you broke a pencil, you press on the pencil hard enough and then snap, and you hear the noise, those sound waves are basically equivalent to what the seismic waves that come out of the fault are. The seismic waves is what you feel as the vibrations that come out of the earthquake.

Brian Lehrer: We're seeing a few different websites, and thanks to producer Kate Hines for forwarding some of this along real quick. Kate Hines is an All Of It producer, but jumping in to help out here, sent us the link to the Centers for Disease Control website that says, "In an earthquake," and I have it open now, "If you are inside stay inside. Do not run outside or to other rooms during an earthquake. You are less likely to be injured if you stay where you are."

Alexander Gates: Right.

Brian Lehrer: You're saying, right? You think that would apply to people listening to this right now and deciding what to do?

Alexander Gates: Obviously, it depends on what kind of house you are in, what kind of situation you're in. The big problem with earthquakes is they tend to shake things off of buildings. The worst thing you can do in a big earthquake is to go stand at-- which is a lot of what people do. They say, oh, let's, let's evacuate the building, and they go stand out in front of it. Windows can pop out of the building, and some of the facing stones can come out. Of course, when that falls down on somebody, that's when you get hurt. The thing is not to stand out in front of a building. Standing out in an open field, you're perfectly safe.

If you're in a lower building that's relatively new and relatively well constructed, you probably don't have a whole lot to worry about. It's in older buildings, in infrastructure that's had time to decay, in buildings that are high buildings, those are the ones you have to make sure you don't get out in front of.

Brian Lehrer: We are a New York and New Jersey public radio reporting on the New York and New Jersey earthquake that apparently happened at 10:23 this morning. People are still asking themselves what just happened here and assessing any possible damage where they are. We have not had any reports yet of major damage or of any injuries. We will see if any emerge. We are getting context from our guest who's been nice enough to hop on with us with absolutely no notice, Alexander Gates, a Rutgers geology professor. You want to stay on with us for a few minutes and take a few phone calls-

Alexander Gates: Sure.

Brian Lehrer: -with people reporting their experiences? Here's Anthony in the East Village. You're on WNYC. Hi, Anthony.

Anthony: Hi, Brian. Yes, it was quite intense. I'm in a pre-work building and my dog and I looked at each other at the exact same time. This feeling was ascending and hit like a crescendo and then descended. We actually thought it was a truck coming down the street, but we didn't hear the noise. Very uncanny. We both ran to the front door [chuckles]. This is very funny.

Brian Lehrer: I love this. This is an interspecies communication moment. Right? You and your dog looked at each other with your eyes asking each other the same question.

Anthony: Literally at the same time. It was very unnerving, actually.

Brian Lehrer: Anthony, thank you. I'm glad you're okay. Charlie in Union City, you're on WNYC. Hi, Charlie.

Charlie: Hi. I live in Union City. The earthquake in my area lasted around three seconds. I was sleeping through it, but--

Brian Lehrer: Oh, and I apologize to everybody. This is even with the sound off. This is with the sound off on my phone getting that emergency alert text. I'm going to read it. Charlie, stay there.

Charlie: Fine.

Brian Lehrer: This is coming from the City of New York, I guess. It says, "4.7 magnitude earthquake has occurred in the New York City area. Residents are advised to remain indoors," so there's confirmation of that, "and to call 911 if injured." Yes, it took them 40 minutes, but that emergency alert just came in. Charlie, how old are you?

Charlie: I'm 10 years old.

Brian Lehrer: I won't ask you why you're not in school today. You're going to describe something about the TV?

Charlie: Yes. When it happened, the TV started to shake. It started to shake really violently on the wall. Since we have a wall TV, and it almost fell down off of my wall. Also that in my bathroom, some things fell off of the cabinets, but I noticed that most things that-- Only significant things that happened, they only really happened upstairs and not really downstairs. We're not really sure why.

Brian Lehrer: Well, let's see if we can get you an answer to that. Charlie, I think you gave us the most detailed reporting of any caller so far. If you want a career in journalism, you're probably set up for it. There aren't a lot of jobs right now in the field, but thank you very much. I hope you and your family are okay. Would that be a thing, what Charlie just mentioned actually, that things might shake more upstairs than downstairs in a multi-story house? Professor?

Alexander Gates: Are you there?

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Can you hear me?

Alexander Gates: Yes. I can hear you. Yes, the upstairs will tend to shake more. It shakes from the ground, and it causes the upstairs to flop more. Also, depending on the way the building is constructed, sometimes they can really amplify the waves. Upstairs does tend to shake more and depending on the building, they can shake more than others.

Brian Lehrer: We're getting a report now from the MTA that service is unaffected. That's the first report from the MTA, service is unaffected. I guess that would mean all bus, subway, and commuter rail lines in the MTA system. We'll see about NJ Transit as soon as we can get a report from them. On the earlier caller, Professor Gates, would a dog sense an earthquake before a person? That caller in the East Village said they looked at each other at the same time. Would there be any reason to think that a dog would sense this coming first?

Alexander Gates: Well, there's all kinds of stories about how animals and insects especially can sense earthquakes before they come. There was one case where we actually predicted an earthquake in China, and they knew it was coming because all the animals started behaving strangely. They say that cockroaches actually can sense earthquakes better than anything.

Brian Lehrer: New Jersey Transit now tweeting, "Rail service system-wide is subject to up to 20-minute delays in both directions due to bridge inspections, following an earlier earthquake." I love that bureaucratic language, "bridge inspection following an earlier earthquake." That was my first reaction when I saw that MTA announcement that everything is running normally. Of course, normally means with a lot of delays, but that's another show. Wouldn't they want to stop some of the elevated service especially, and do some inspections? This sounds prudent from NJ Transit.

Alexander Gates: Yes. It is a prudent thing to do. As I said, the problem with areas like this as opposed to say, California or someplace that gets regular large earthquakes, is that infrastructure can decay and can get into a very precarious situation. Then when the earthquake comes vile, it knocks things over that normally wouldn't. That's the thing you have to worry about it. That's why areas that don't get earthquakes very often can have much worse issues when they actually finally do.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take one more call for now. Kathy in Greenwich Village, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kathy.

Kathy: Hi. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you. Can you hear me? Hello.

Kathy: Oh, good. Hi. Yes, I can. I was just in the other room. I felt it. I was standing in front of my mirror in the bathroom, putting on my makeup. and it went boom, boom, boom. I thought, "Oh, my God, it's an earthquake." Then I thought, "We don't have earthquakes." I thought, "Well, maybe they're doing some work downstairs," because I'm on the 14th floor.

Brian Lehrer: 14th floor. That must have been even more scary. Are you talking to your neighbors on your floor in the building?

Kathy: I have a lot of neighbors and I live in a big building, but I haven't stepped outside yet. I was just going to go down and talk to the doorman to see what- because he was having a lot of work done. I live on 14th and 7th, and everything, it's a mess. The [unintelligible 00:26:43] down there, and the subway people, they're all doing work on the street. I don't know what happened down there, but I have [crosstalk]--Brian Lehrer: I know that neighborhood. It seems to me they're always doing work on 14th and 7th.

Kathy: Absolutely.

Brian Lehrer: Does it feel like that to you?

Kathy: Say that again. You can say that again. I've lived here a long time, and yes, that's true, but anyway--

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Can you see out your window? Have people left the building, and are on the street?

Kathy: Yes. Oh, I live in the back of the building and I can't see anything. I can just see the river. I can see 14th Street and it looks normal. Still looks like a lot of people.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Kathy. Good. Thank you for checking in. Professor Gates, before I let you go, is there any reason to think that this was the first shake of more to come? If so, would they tend to be stronger or weaker?

Alexander Gates: There probably will be others. They may not happen within 10 minutes or 20 minutes, but within the next several probably days, to weeks, we will get more earthquakes in the area. The way it works is you build up stress on a fault, and then it cracks it breaks. Then because it does that, it transmits stresses to other places on the fault. It usually takes a while for the entire fault to even out. That means you will get additional earthquakes. Typically, these are going to be aftershocks, and aftershocks are smaller.

Now in big areas, this could be a foreshock and you could get a bigger earthquake, but that's extremely unlikely in this area. This is a big earthquake for us. I would expect to see earthquakes in the range of magnitudes two to three over the next maybe days to weeks.

Brian Lehrer: Well, as we wrap up with you, people have been saying all week that they're getting ready for this natural phenomenon that's really rare in our area, and they're ready for it to be really special and different and maybe disorienting, but we thought it was going to be Monday.

Alexander Gates: [laughs] Yes. I don't think these have anything to do with each other, but some people might say they do.

Brian Lehrer: Alexander Gates, geology professor at Rutgers. Again, thank you on no notice for hopping on with us and sharing your expertise.

Alexander Gates: My pleasure.

 

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