A New York borough was struck by a 1.7 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey has confirmed.
The epicenter of the quake was 0.5 miles ENE of Astoria, Queens, according to the USGS Earthquake Information Center.
The 5km quake began at 5.45am and was felt up to 45 miles away in Bridgeport, per citizen reports to the USGS. Most people experienced the tremor as ‘weak’.
There were no reports of any damage or injuries in New York, according to Notify NYC.
Resident on the Big Apple’s Roosevelt Island reported feeling ‘three booms and shakes’ early Tuesday morning just after the quake began.
A magnitude 1.7 earthquake struck the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City on Tuesday
Firefighters initiated an emergency response protocol after ‘three booms and shakes’ were felt in New York City ‘s Roosevelt Island early Tuesday morning
An emergency response protocol was initiated by the fire department soon after as they struggled to understand the cause of the tremors.
Residents reported power outages, with energy firm Con Edison reportedly asked to look into power cuts at ‘several buildings’.
Crews were called to the 580 block of Main Street, south of the Roosevelt Island Bridge & Tram, just before 6am after receiving reports of an explosion and building shaking, FDNY told DailyMail.com.
Roosevelt Island residents reported being woken up this morning to at least ‘three instances of a boom and a shake’, with the third vibration being ‘felt further away’.
An Astoria resident said the explosion was so fierce it felt like ‘a truck had plowed into our building’.
‘Loud booms and a shake. We’re still trying to chill from that. Scary stuff,’ they said.
‘I woke up from the shake all the way in Astoria!’ another man said.
New York residents reported feeling the quake up to 45 miles away in the hamlet of Bridgeport
Emergency responders reported ‘feeling vibrations’ in both Roosevelt Island, Manhattan and Queens
Buildings at 2 and 4 River Road just south of the Roosevelt Island Bridge and Tram experienced power outages.
‘The elevators were out, we walked down. So much commotion going on. No one knew what was going on,’ a resident told abc7.
Earthquakes in New York City are rare, but not unheard of. In May last year, a 2.2 magnitude tremor shook Hastings-on-Hudson.
Most of New York’s earthquakes have taken place in the wider New York City area, in the Adirondack Mountains region, and in the west of the state.
The region has also been rocked by seismic events in Canada. The largest earthquake took place on September 5, 1944 on the US border. The 5.9 tremor caused massive damage to the towns of Massena, NY and Cornwall, Ontario.