"Is that construction? What the heck are they doing?" I thought. Then I realized what it was: an earthquake.
The NYC area just experienced a medium-sized earthquake. It was a 4.7 magnitude, according to the US Geological Survey.
An Unusual Type of Earthquake
There's something very unusual about this quake. It occurred at a depth of just 5 kilometers, which is extremely shallow.
Earthquakes that occur at shallow depths are much more damaging. From Phys.org:
Shallow quakes generally tend to be more damaging than deeper quakes. Seismic waves from deep quakes have to travel farther to the surface, losing energy along the way.
My entire high rise apartment building shook like crazy for probably 15 seconds. But it felt like forever.
And I'm not going to lie, I was absolutely terrified. Right now, things are okay, thank God.
My First Quake
The only other time I experienced an earthquake, I was in Tokyo in 2020. It was around 5am, and I was sound asleep.
Suddenly, a weird shaking woke me up. My sleepy brain thought someone was shaking my bed as a prank.
"Stop it, it's not funny," I thought. Then I realized: there's no one else here.
At that moment, my brain went from foggy to crystal clear.
"I know what that is."
The shaking felt like a metronome — a perfect back and forth. It lasted maybe 10 seconds, but it was very noticeable.
When it stopped, I grabbed my phone and hit Google. Quickly, I saw a result from the Japanese Meteorological Agency.
"Magnitude 5.2 Ibaraki prefecture."
Okay, I wasn't imagining things.
Why Did Today's Quake Feel So Strong?
Today's quake felt much stronger than the Japanese one I experienced in 2020.
Ibaraki Prefecture is around 60 miles from Tokyo. Today's quake occurred near Lebanon, NJ, around 50 miles from Hudson County, NJ where I sit.
The distance is similar, but the Japanese scale differs significantly from ours.
A smaller number on the Japanese scale equates to a much higher one on our scale. Accounting for that, the Japanese quake was probably about 5 times stronger than today's.
However, the Japanese quake was much deeper, 46 km vs 5 km for today's quake in New Jersey. That could explain why today's earthquake felt much stronger to me than the Japanese one did.
Staying Safe
In any case, I'm grateful to be safe today! It really puts our little daily annoyances in perspective.
Here's some info from the US Geological Survey on what we can do to stay safe in future earthquakes:
Wrap-Up
It's funny…we humans think we're so powerful. But we're not.
We're little ants on the surface of this giant ball we barely understand. In the end, all we can do is prepare and hope for the best.
Did you feel the quake today? Leave a comment and let us know!
Have a safe weekend everyone!
More from the blog:
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