Earthquake Hits Monmouth County, Lasts About A Minute

By Tom Davis (Patch Staff)

You probably didn’t feel it. But the earthquake was real.

A small earthquake that lasted about a minute hit the Monmouth and Ocean County area in Jersey early Saturday, causing some shake that could be felt miles away.

There were no reported injures or structural damage as a result of the quake.

The 1.9-magnitude quake, which occurred at 7:13 a.m. Saturday, was centered about 4 miles from Shrewsbury, 16 miles east of Trenton and and about 5 to 10 miles south of Freehold, said Dale Grant, geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

“You had a real earthquake,” Grant told Patch late Saturday.

Grant said residents in Jackson and Roosevelt reported feeling the earthquake.

The earthquake pales to the tremors felt in New Jersey in August 2011, when a quakeoriginating in Virginia measured a 5.9 on the Richter scale.

In that episode, reports came from residents along the Lakewood border, along Route 70, in downtown Toms River and in East Dover describing the ground shake. Residents in two-story homes reported their houses swaying; picture frames on walls rattled against the wallpaper.

Pictured: seismicity map for central New Jersey from 1973 to March 2012.

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