3.0 Earthquake Sends NJ Citizens Into State of Panic

Last night, at around 10.30 p.m., a 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck, centered a few miles away from Morristown, NJ. According to reports, New Jersey citizens lost it. "It sounded like an explosion, houses shook and dogs started barking," said one tremor victim. Others said it felt like a "bomb" and one man TV reporters, "I was upstairs on my computer, and all of a sudden I hear a boom, boom, boom, then a bang, bang, bang. My monitor almost fell off of my computer desk. So I immediately went downstairs to check on my grandma and ask her if she was alright or if she fell." Harrowing, yes? In their defense, the last recorded earthquake in NJ was a 2.1 last year and a jarring 4.0 quake rocked their world back in 1985.

written by Brock Keeling of SFist.com *wink*

Earthquakes in places like NJ feel a lot bigger because their bedrock tends to be harder and transmits energy a lot better than the crappy, broken-up bedrock we have here on the west coast. Magnitude only tells you how much energy was released on the fault, how severe the earthquake feels to someone nearby depends on a lot of different variables.