New York City shakes as rare earthquake hits US North East

UN Security Council diplomats were shaken in their chairs, planes got briefly grounded, and furniture rattled across New York on Friday morning when an earthquake jolted the city that never sleeps.

No one was hurt, though, and New York's iconic skyline remained intact.

The tremor had a 4.8 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey [USGS].

US President Joe Biden was briefed on the earthquake, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.

"With regard to the earthquake, I spoke to the governor, he thinks everything's under control and is not too concerned about it. The governor of New Jersey. So things are alright," Biden said later.

Near the epicentre 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 AM FINE," reported the Empire State Building on its X account.

In Brooklyn, buildings shook, rattling cupboard doors and fixtures, an AFP correspondent reported.

"I'm nervous, I'm shaking. Many people are scared right now," said Brooklyn resident Ana Villagran, 62.

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."

'Remain indoors'

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.

The USGS says that moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the urban corridor roughly twice a century, and smaller earthquakes are felt roughly every two to three years.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul acknowledged New Yorkers were "not accustomed" to earthquakes and — at a hastily convened press briefing — warned residents to be wary of any possible aftershocks.

Quake gets wacky

Social media users jokingly questioned whether an earthquake coming days before the April 8 solar eclipse, which will be visible across swaths of the northeastern United States, heralded the end of the world.

"God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come," Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — a noted conspiracy theorist even in normal times — wrote on X.

"I pray that our country listens," she posted.

On the other side of the political spectrum, some spotted that the epicentre of the quake was close to Trump's New Jersey golf club in Bedminster.

The MeidasTouch group, which opposes Trump, highlighted the New Jersey map under a meme of "Dark Brandon" — a version of Biden in which the 81-year-old president is depicted grinning with red laser beams shooting from his eyes.

Others poked fun at the doomsayers with a little doomsaying of their own.

"Old Gypsy woman: *turns over a tarot card that shows an Earthquake in NYC just days before a total solar eclipse*," wrote Robert McNees, described as a physicist, on X.

"Sources say that New Yorkers should expect a swarm of locusts following the earthquake, floods and eclipse. Rumblings of concern about plagues so soon before Passover," another poster on X wrote.

New York is also the US media capital, ensuring an unparalleled ratio between the number of journalists and relative lack of news to cover.

In the ensuing race for original headlines, perhaps The Guardian will be recorded as the winner, with: "US man was getting vasectomy as earthquake struck."

According to the article, he emerged from the experience as smoothly as everyone else in the city that never sleeps.

"It mostly felt like a speed bump," he told the outlet.