On Monday, February 3rd, 2008, an earthquake shook the grounds of Morris County, New Jersey. The earthquake had a magnitude of 3.0 which may sound like nothing but in the state of New Jersey it is very unusual. The earthquake was at 10:34pm and the center of the quake was not far from Morristown. No one around where the quake occured expected or even thought that what shook them was actually an earthquake.
As stated above, no one suspected that there was an earthquake. The article states, "Many who heard a boom and felt the ground shake thought their furnace had blown up. Others feared a truck or plane had crashed. Still others surmised there had been an explosion at Picatinny Arsenal, an Army base in Morris County that tests weapons." This shows how unusual an earthquake of that magnitude is in New Jersey. The article also says that, "The last serious earthquake in New Jersey -- with a magnitude of 5.5 -- happened in 1884 off of Sandy Hook, Gates said. That quake toppled church steeples and yanked homes from their foundations, he said." I hope there aren't anymore 5.5 magnitude earthquakes. That would be dangerous because New Jersey is not used to earthquakes.
Since New Jersey is not used to earthquakes of a magnitude of 3.0 the article states, "Randolph police alone received about 500 calls, Lt. Donald Smith said. Dover police said they had two staff members taking calls continuously for more than a half-hour." I would call too; who would have thought it was an earthquake? As I said above the article said that the last serious earthquake in New Jersey was a magnitude of 5.5. Well the article has some other bad news. The article says "Scientists believe a 5.5-magnitude earthquake could happen every 120 years and a 7.0-magnitude quake every 3,400 years, Gates said." A 7.0 is close to the magnitude of the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco! That earthquake was a disastrous event and if that were to happen here I would be extremely scared.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/it_sounded_like_an_explosion.html
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