New Jersey Baby Boomer

My husband is working in Dover, NJ, and called me today to tell me that his co-workers were all talking about the earthquake they had last night at about 10:30 pm EST.  Everyone had their own story of what it felt like, and sounded like.  Now remember, here in NJ we don’t have many earthquakes, and when we do, even though it may not feel like much to someone in California, it feels like a lot to us.

After he told me about it, I did my “google” thing to see if I could find any more information, and sure enough, there were a few things written about it, including an article in the New York Times, with the picture I’m using in this post.  According to the New York Times, people described it like this:

Workers at an Exxon Station in Rockaway, N.J., said that the night was going along normally when the earthquake struck.

“It was like a bomb, a strong one,” said Cafer Sahin, 40, an attendant.

Tom Smaga, 27, was working inside the station when, he said, he first heard and then felt the earthquake.

“It was a loud boom and after that it shook the whole building,” Mr. Smaga said. He said the vibrations lasted for about two or three seconds.

Toni Dellamonica, a dispatcher for the Rockaway Township Police Department, said that there had been no reports of injuries or major damage.

Ms. Dellamonica said the earthquake felt like “a rolling rumble,” as if someone was dragging something across the ground.

In Dover, N.J., near the quake’s epicenter, Francis Rodriguez was playing cards with a friend when, she said, “it felt like something exploded underground.”

The shaking did not damage her house, she said, but her friend, Cheryll Post, who was visiting Ms. Rodriguez, said “it was very scary.” Patricia Avila, was in her second-floor apartment in Rockaway, N.J., when she felt what she described as “a loud thump.”

“It was just a bang,” Walter Michalski, a police officer in Dover, N.J., said of Monday’s earthquake. “That’s it. A bang.”

Peter Johnson, a dispatcher for the Morris Plains Police department, said “I wasn’t sure what it was. It was just a shaking.”

Mr. Kim of Lamont-Doherty said that low-level earthquakes are not unusual near that area.

The location is about a 30-40 minute drive from our home. We actually have a fault that runs practically through our neighborhood here, the Ramapo Fault, and I’ve heard that we’ve had some extremely minor activity, once while we lived here, but nothing like what the people in Dover, NJ described.