At 1:30 a.m. today, a magnitude 2.6 earthquake shook western upstate New York outside of Watertown, causing scores of residents to report “Did you feel it?” using USGS’s online reporting tool.
Adams Center was the location of the earthquake’s epicenter, and it occurred at a depth of 6 kilometers. While the 3.8 earthquake that hit West Seneca two months ago was stronger, today’s tremor was the greatest to hit New York in the past 30 days.
New York City had not seen an earthquake of that magnitude in decades before that one.
There were more than 50 reports of shaking this morning in New York, but no damage or injuries have been reported.
The Northeast States Emergency Consortium (NESEC) reports that New York has experienced widespread earthquakes throughout its history. Since the first earthquake was reported on December 19, 1737, there have been more than 550 earthquakes with their epicenters within New York state.
Earthquakes localized in neighboring U.S. states and Canadian provinces have also caused significant ground shaking there.
The areas around New York City, the Adirondack Mountains, and the western section of the state have experienced the lion’s share of the state’s earthquake activity.
Earthquakes in New York City are rather common, and while most are relatively minor like today’s, others have caused significant damage. There were 551 quakes documented between 1737 and 2016, with only 5 of them being deemed “damaging” (1737, 1929, 1944, 1983, and 2002).
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New York City has experienced damaging earthquakes as well, even though most of the state’s quakes have occurred in the Upstate. On the evening of December 18, 1737, at around 10:30 p.m., a quake with an estimated magnitude of 5.2 struck New York.
Chimneys in the city were damaged by the quake. Chimneys and plaster were shattered, windows were broken, and items on shelves were tossed all throughout New York City and the surrounding towns of New York and New Jersey when a 5.2 earthquake hit on August 10, 1884.
The 1884 earthquake was felt from Penobscot Bay, Maine, all the way to Toledo, Ohio. There were also reports of people in Baltimore, Maryland feeling it.
