There was palpable tension after a 4.8 magnitude hit New York City, in the United States of America (USA).
The unusual tremor occur on Friday was reported about 5 miles north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, at about 10:23 a.m local time on Friday.
The epicenter was about 45 miles away from New York City, where residents reported shaking furniture and floors.
Near the epicenter in Lebanon, New Jersey, store supervisor Dominika Uniejewska, 50, said “I’m still shaking” after being woken up by the quake.
“I’ve never experienced such a strong earthquake. I did experience some before but it was nothing compared to that. The whole house was really shaking. The bed was shaking, the house was making rumbling noises,” she said.
“I ran to check on my dog. The dog was okay.”
In Brooklyn, buildings shook, rattling cupboard doors and fixtures, an AFP correspondent reported.
At the United Nations, which has its headquarters in New York, a Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza was temporarily paused after the tremor.
“Is that an earthquake?” said Save the Children representative Janti Soeripto who was speaking at the time. One diplomat joked: “One for the memoirs.”
A short time later many diplomats’ cell phones blared with the sound of the emergency alert system confirming the quake.
“Residents are advised to remain indoors and to call 911 if injured,” the emergency alert said.
Flight operations were halted at several airports in the region including New York’s La Guardia, Philadelphia and Newark in New Jersey.
“Air traffic operations are resuming as quickly as possible,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Social media users reported feeling the earthquake from Philadelphia up to New York and eastward along Long Island.
Several users posted images of knocked over garden furniture captioned “we will rebuild.”
“Earthquakes are uncommon but not unheard of along the Atlantic Coast, a zone one study called a “passive-aggressive margin” because there’s no active plate boundary between the Atlantic and North American plates,” the USGS wrote on X.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the earthquake, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“The White House is in touch with federal, state, and local officials as we learn more,” she added.
