Earthquake confirmed in NYC, but shock felt most away from epicenter

ROOSEVELT ISLAND (PIX11) -- It’s now confirmed by federal seismologists that there was an earthquake in New York City on Tuesday morning. Even though it was not a high magnitude temblor, its effects were felt strongly, nonetheless.  

“I kept hearing, like thuds, coming from above,” said Yasmin Clark, a Roosevelt Island resident, who’d been in bed when the episode happened around 5:45 a.m. “My mother said she definitely felt the walls shaking. She was up,” Clark said. 

“I just saw all the firetrucks and stuff,” she continued, “and heard the helicopters, but I didn't know what happened.”

What happened was what the United States Geological Survey determined mid-morning — that there was an earthquake, measuring 1.7 in magnitude. 

It’s a far lower intensity than the 7.6 magnitude quake this week in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, which took the lives of at least 55 people. 

Nonetheless, as pointed out by Roosevelt Island resident Jean Shea, “it sounded like an explosion,” which she found to be “kind of shocking, you know, like, wow.”

Even though far more people reported feeling the effects of the quake on Roosevelt Island than anywhere else — in fact, the FDNY responded for more than an hour to reports of "explosions/shaking" -- its epicenter was a mile-and-a-half away, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It placed the epicenter at the latitude-longitude location of 40.777 degrees north, 73.922 degrees west. 

In layperson's terms, that's on 24th Avenue, between 21st Street and 19th Street, in Astoria, Queens. At that location, the reactions were very different than those on Roosevelt Island. Few people said they'd experienced the quake. 

The front door Chris Wilson's home faces the epicenter location. "This is literally the first time that I'm hearing about this," he said early Tuesday afternoon. "Slept through it," he continued, "despite the fact that the epicenter was like 50 feet in front of my door. That's wild."

Another resident near the epicenter, who gave only his first name, Jim, also didn't feel it, but said that there's one benefit to living where he does. "At least I can call my friend in California and say you no longer have anything on me," he joked. 

Maggie Mannix lives a couple of blocks north of the epicenter. She was among the few who did feel an impact. "I heard some rattling, basically, of picture frames and stuff," she said, "and I thought I was going crazy."

Seismologists said that she was not only not going crazy, but that what she felt was part of a pattern of quakes in the tri-state region dating back at least to 1737. More than 500 earthquakes have been recorded in the region. Very few have had any reports of serious injuries. Tuesday's temblor was no exception. There were no reported injuries.