- A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck the East Coast today, rattling communities from southern New Jersey to upstate New York.
- With the total solar eclipse just three days away, you may be wondering if these events are related.
- However, there is no scientific evidence that solar eclipses cause earthquakes.
Did you feel that way?
At 10:23 a.m., a magnitude 4.8 earthquake shook the East Coast, shaking New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York, and across Connecticut, stranding many New York travelers.
This was a relatively small earthquake, and so far no injuries or damage to infrastructure have been reported.
Rutgers University geologist Kenneth Miller said in an emailed statement that an earthquake of this size is “enough to rattle walls, but typically does not cause significant damage.”
The quake occurred on the Ramapo Border Fault, which has an estimated depth of just over 4 miles, Miller said.
Earthquakes along this fault are not uncommon, but are usually magnitude 3 or less. Some aftershocks are possible, but they will be much smaller, he wrote.
Earthquakes are rare on the East Coast because the region is not located on a tectonic plate boundary, or where two different plates meet.
For example, there were only four earthquakes in New York last year. Meanwhile, in California, there were more than 9,000, according to the World Population Review.
With only three days left until the total solar eclipse on April 8, many people are wondering if the eclipse caused today's earthquake. Here's what science says about this:
Solar eclipses do not cause earthquakes
The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's solar eclipse had no significant effect on Friday's earthquake.
Some studies suggest that a new moon (the moon is located between the Earth and the sun, thus causing a solar eclipse) can increase tidal forces and increase the likelihood of strong earthquakes. Masu.
But “tidal forces are a small factor influencing earthquakes,” Linsen Meng, associate professor of geophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles, told BI.
“Usually it doesn't matter. You actually have to look at a lot of data to see the optical correlation. And that only happens with lunar tides, because the solar tidal forces are too weak. , because it has little chance of having an impact on earthquakes,” he said.
Moreover, today's earthquake was too small to be caused by a new moon, experts say.
“This has nothing to do with a solar eclipse. Earthquakes of this magnitude basically have no celestial correlation,” Paul Earle, director of operations for the USGS National Earthquake Information Center, said at a press conference Friday.
Therefore, experiencing an earthquake three days before a solar eclipse is a rare and interesting phenomenon, but also a coincidence.
