New Jersey Really Did Once Have A 4.8 Magnitude Earthquake

We worry about a lot of things in the Garden State, but you have to go way down on our list of worries to find earthquakes.

Scientists say there are many earthquakes all over the nation, and in our area, that go undetected. Most of us can even remember one or two we either felt or someone we know did.

Can you believe, however, that the Garden State once had an earthquake that registered 4.8 on the Richter Scale? That's nothing to sneeze at.

This particular New Jersey earthquake amounted to nothing more than broken dishes and some dislocation of furniture, but even that is a lot more earthquake than you'd expect in New Jersey.

That earthquake, which happened in August of 1938 was actually part of a series of tremors over a 5 day period, according to NESEC.

The earthquake of 1938 was centered in Trenton and could reportedly be felt as far away as Delaware.

Here's a number that is really surprising. Even though it's a long span of time, it might shock you to learn that between 1738 and 2016, New Jersey had experienced nearly 100 "felt earthquakes".

the most sobering thing about earthquakes in our area is that the NESEC map is literally dotted with confirmed earthquakes in New Jersey, most in the north, but certainly not all of them.

The good news is the biggest quake we've ever had in the Garden State happened about 85 years ago, and just broke some dishes. It's a good bet we can go on to worrying about all the other things on our list.