On Friday morning (05), an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale was felt throughout New York City, parts of Long Island, northern New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania, including the city of Philadelphia. Earthquakes are rare on the east coast of the United States.
In New York, residents were surprised by the tremor. Minutes later, a message from the alert system appeared on cell phones in the region confirming the earthquake and recommending that residents stay at home and call emergency services if they were injured.
Videos of residents in shock begin to circulate on social media. A television station, which was live, spoke of the tremor as it happened. Even at UN headquarters, the official video of one of the sessions shows diplomats asking: “Is this an earthquake”?
A 4.8 magnitude tremor, however, is not a large earthquake. There is no confirmation about deaths or injuries and the incident is being considered just a scare.
The city hall reported that there is no evidence that public school buildings were damaged and that, therefore, there is no reason for parents to pick up their children.
The last time New Yorkers felt an earthquake was in 2011, when a tremor measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit the city. Unlike the states on the country’s west coast, the largest city in the USA is far from where tectonic plates meet.
Still, New York is not immune to tremors like this or larger ones. In the north of the island of Manhattan, a geological fault known as the 125th Street fault is seen as a possible generator of tremors in the future.
An hour after the tremor, a new warning message was sent to residents of the region, stating that aftershocks could still be felt during the day, but that normal life could continue.
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
