One of the larger aftershocks from the April 5 earthquake in central Jersey occurred Saturday
Scores of aftershocks have occurred since April 5, most of them no great shakes.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/4AQZJMA2R5GIPFOV5BX4G6T2XQ.jpg)
It was no great shakes around here, but the U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 2.9 aftershock Saturday, one of the largest measured since the “main quake” in central New Jersey rocked and shocked much of the Philadelphia and New York regions on the morning of April 5.
As the original quake and the more than 130 aftershocks that have followed, this one was centered not far from Whitehouse Station, in Hunterdon County.
USGS said it had received only 951 reports of people having felt tremors. By contrast, after the main quake on April 5 it received over 180,000, and more than 12,000 when a magnitude 3.7 was detected around 6 p.m. April 5.
The magnitude 2.9, measured shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday, ranked as the second-strongest aftershock after that one.
The overwhelming majority of the aftershocks, which have occurred almost daily, failed to exceed the “microearthquake” threshold of 2, according to USGS data.
Aftershocks are no cause for panic, says Alexandra Hatem, USGS research geologist at the Geologic Hazards Science Center, in Golden, Colo.
“The aftershocks are expected, and nothing out of the ordinary,” she said.