Earthquake hits NYC before eclipse (video)

Biblical proportions. What does it mean? Doesn't everyone have to wonder about the convergence of three odd things -- an impending locust infestation (of three species of cicadas about to emerge from the ground in a riot of insectoid sound), a rare full solar eclipse, and now the earth is moving in a part of the country California is routinely mocked for? And Taiwan was just struck by a massive quake out of nowhere, possibly hit by secret Mainland China technology loosed on the East Coast. One has to think the Sky Gods are unhappy and sending signs from above. Or is the military-industrial complex testing new secret weapons, Tesla vibrators that shake buildings, CRISPR on bug DNA, spinning the planet faster or wobbling it so no one can say it's immovable or standing on pillars?

How intense is the new normal?

(ABC News) A 4.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the Northeast USA Friday morning, in what New York Governor Kathy Hochul called "one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century."

The earthquake was centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, and shook buildings from New Jersey and New York City and Westchester to Philadelphia and Connecticut. It could be felt as far south as Washington, D.C., and as far north as Maine (on the border with Canada), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Several weaker aftershocks were also reported in the hours following the initial quake, including one measuring 4.0 magnitude centered near Gladstone, New Jersey, Friday evening, according to preliminary data from the USGS.

• Notable earthquakes felt in the NYC region

There were no reports of injuries or major damage following the initial quake.

"There is a low likelihood of casualties and damage," according to the USGS.

• Northeast quake rattles residents: 'A roller coaster under my house'

"I felt like there was a roller coaster under my house going 1,000 miles an hour," Carol Nicolaidis of Brooklyn, New York, told ABC News. "I first thought pipes were exploding under my house."

"I was sitting in my living room, and I saw the walls shaking; it felt like a wave," she said.

"It felt like a subway train running under the couch," said Rocco Pietropola, who was in an eighth-floor Manhattan apartment.

This was the strongest quake in the greater New York City metro area since 1884, according to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

Con Edison said there are no reports of outages, and the MTA said there was no service disruption to New York City's subway system. More + VIDEO

• ABC News, 4/5/24; Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly