Diverse Places: Rare 3.1 Quake Hits New York

Rare M3.1 earthquake rattles South Glens Falls, New York - Shakings and loud booms reported ccross New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Long Island, NY

A rare M3.1 earthquake hit right next to South Glens Falls and rattled residents across central New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Long Island, NY on March 11, 2020.

The shallow quake (8.2 miles depth) occurred at 6:43 a.m. and lasted four to five seconds.

Woken up by shaking and loud booms

The earthquake wasn’t strong enough to produce damage of any kind. However, residents report being “woken up by the shaking” and hearing “loud earthquake booms.”

Here a few reports of residents that felt the quake:

At first I thought it was a log truck that went ripping by. Then I got an alert from my weather app that it was an earthquake.

It sounded like a dump truck slammed into the building real hard. My husband says it sounded like a D train arriving at 34th street. It was scary, we went outside to look for damage but found none. Our neighbor and her boyfriend felt what seemed like a sonic boom too, my eardrums still feel sore.

Here’s how I’d describe it at my house in Wilton: A loud boom which sounded like a massive tree falling followed by about 5-7 seconds of shaking which rattled the handles on my dresser drawers.

Earthquakes are rare in New York State, with only 560 earthquakes since 1737 and five damaging earthquakes in 1737, 1929, 1944, 1983 and 2002.

But according to recent research, New York City is overdue for strong earthquake that could level thousands of buildings and at least injure thousands of residents.