a 4.8 magnitude earthquake sent Tremors through New Jersey this morning and rocked the Northeast Corridor from Marland to Massachusetts according to the US Geological Survey the Quake hit at 10:23 a.m. its epicenter recorded near Readington in Hunterdon County early estimates show it was felt by some 42 million people all along the east coast who largely aren't accustomed to this kind of event it rattled large buildings it shook windows and cars all for about 20 to 30 seconds Governor Murphy took to social media letting residents know the state immediately activated the emergency Operation Center Murphy also spoke with President Biden by phone briefing him on the incident 911 centers across the state reported being inundated with calls so far though only very minor damage has been reported and no injuries assessments are ongoing globally this level of earthquake isn't uncommon but it was enough to unnerve a whole lot of tough Jersey residents I was in a I was in a building complex that was on the 35th floor and it was definitely like a zero gravity moment I moved from California I thought I was leaving the earthquakes behind my roommate was like screaming so I felt bad and I was like what's happening it's just the train she was like Chris no it's an earthquake I was not expecting it I thought earthquakes were like a California thing West Coast I'm like East Coast we're fine well besides the shock flights were temporarily grounded Ed in and out of Newark Airport PATCO suspended service to check the Integrity of the line New Jersey Transit operated on delays while Bridges were inspected and the Holland Tunnel was closed to traffic for inspection State Police Colonel Pat Callahan today said commuters though should rest easy yeah I think they should be confident in our uh in the inspections that have taken place so far uh NJ Transit Transit has been out there inspecting their lines and bridges I've been on with Authority multiple times uh aside from the the air train at Newark which is delayed probably for another three or so hours um all the bridges and tunnels on both the New York side as well as uh Philadelphia um and Pennsylvania and Delaware so that Regional approach to this earthquake uh was almost immediate to watch that come together just to make sure that uh especially our commuters were safe No Doubt though a historic day for the state for more on that we turn to Greg Pope he's a professor of Earth and Environmental Studies at Montclair State University Professor Greg Pope uh really happy to have you and your expertise on the show uh what can you tell us about the earthquake that we felt how is it classified and uh when's the last time something like this happened all right so this it looks like this is centered on what's known as the Ramapo fault system it goes uh um kind of through North uh you know Northwest New Jersey um it's a kind of a dividing line between uh the Newark Basin and the higher rocks higher mountains in the northwest New Jersey it's been there a very long time it uh you know hundreds of millions of years it does shift occasionally uh this is uh as far as shifting um it's kind of like maybe the higher end of what we would normally ECT on this type of fault um uh you know every few years we get you know earthquakes like this on on this fault or or ones nearby but um ones maybe this strong or lengthy are not usual so a little little more time between those yeah I think a lot of us were brushing up on our history of the Ramapo fault uh line today and being the longest fault line in the Northeast so what did that mean for the amount of people who felt it and at a 4.8 um what's the significance of that and the potential for damage right so yeah I guess there's some reports of minor damage around uh I was looking at the U the did you feel it shake map that you can see on the USGS website it's as far as like central Pennsylvania up to New England down to Virginia so it's pretty widely felt um it's a relatively shallow earthquake only about you know less than five kilometers deep the the thing is with you know if this had happened in Wyoming or or Utah or something like that it would not be that big of a deal but it's here in a pretty populous area of the Northeast so a lot of people did feel it um as far as it's it's kind of widespread feel um because it was shallow there might be you know kind minor damage here and there um what triggers it Greg what what triggers an earthquake like this because and you can certainly clarify but it appears any that something of this significance um hasn't happened uh or at least it's the strongest in the last 50 years that's right so right it's there's nothing this is not a tectonically active part of the country we're not at a we're not at a plate boundary like California or Utah might be uh where where it's there t more tectonic activity uh it's this is simply the crust adjusting it's an existing fracture you know a fault in the in the crust so it it does adjust and and move it's been one reason it can do that is um you know even 10 20,000 years after the Ice Age the crust around in the Northeast is still slightly adjusting from the weight of the glaciers that we're are no longer on us so that's part of it but it's just it's normal kind of adjusting the the crust as it as it you know this part of the continent as it sags or shifts a little a little bit um sometimes they're very minor things that you don't pick up and sometimes it may move a little bit more what's the likelihood then of this something of this magnitude happening again and of course we saw uh major Quakes happen in Asia just uh earlier this week so what's the likelihood for this happening again here which is I think what a lot of folks are wondering sure uh there there might be some minor uh aftershocks but probably things that uh most people won't feel uh to have something as strong or stronger would be really unusual and not likely at all typical when it comes to the scientific nature rare for those of us uh who've lived in this state our whole lives Greg Pope is a professor of Earth and Environmental Studies at Montclair State University Greg thanks so much all right thank you