SLEEPY HOLLOW, New York (WABC) — It was a rude awakening Tuesday morning in Sleepy Hollow.
For many who lived through the minor but memorable earthquake that hit at 10:17 a.m., the experience began with a noise – what sounded like two explosions – and then, everything shook.
Wherever you went in Sleepy Hollow Tuesday, from the main drag of Beekman Avenue, to inside Village Hall, to the streets filled with picturesque homes, the temblor was the talk of the town, even though there was no reported damage and nobody was hurt.
“It started rumbling, slow, and everyone kind of stopped talking. And then it picked up to a much more violent shock. But the whole thing only lasted maybe seven seconds at most,” said student Gabriel Spector.
The size of the quake may not have been impressive – registering a magnitude 2.3, at a shallow 4 miles deep, small enough to barely warrant news coverage in, say, California.
But a quake in Westchester County, while not unheard of – a more powerful 4.0 hit nearby Ardsley in October 1985 – is still enough of a rarity sure to stir excitement.
Tuesday’s small quake packed quite a punch because of geological differences between the Northeast and elsewhere in the country,
Experts say such tremors in the Ramapo Fault Zone, which Sleepy Hollow is part of, via the Dobbs Ferry Fault, are often felt in a widespread area because the earth’s crust is particularly dense here. The crust on the East Coast is more rigid, so quakes are felt over a broader area, and indeed, this quake shook a swath of the region, with reports of shaking dozens of miles from the heart of Sleepy Hollow in all directions.
“It just depends on how that reverberated through the hard crust of New Jersey and New York, but I see it’s been felt all the way down to the Bronx and up to Putnam County,” Channel 7 Eyewitness News chief meteorologist Lee Goldberg explains.
He heard it up in Mount Kisco 13 miles north of Sleepy Hollow.
Meterologist Lee Goldberg chimes in on the 2.3 magnitude earthquake near Sleepy Hollow in Westchester.
This quake could have been a tectonic earthquake (along a fault within a continental plate); strike-slip quake or a frost quake, so called because the recent snow melt and wild swings in temperatures, from polar cold to record summer-like warmth, may have contributed, though that theory needs further study.
Folks in Sleepy Hollow weren’t worrying about the science, though. They just wanted to swap stories of shaking.
Ted Schillinger heard the big boom, and the said it felt like somebody had picked up his house a foot off the ground and dropped it.
Jordan Hongach was recording her aunt’s dogs at the time, and the video captures a low thud when the brown dog’s ears go up, followed by another bang – and then barking.
“It just felt like the whole ground was shaking. And we went outside and all the neighbors were out and like, did you feel that? Did you feel that? And like it was an earthquake and all the dogs were barking like crazy,” Hongach said.
Westchester’s Department of Emergency Services has not received any reports of damage. Officials at the former Indian Point site conducted precautionary site surveys.
“While this was a minor event, it is a reminder that Westchester County sits in a region where seismic activity can occur,” said Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins. “Today’s earthquake underscores yet another reason why a nuclear power plant does not belong in Westchester County. The safety of our residents and the protection of the Hudson Valley must always come first.”
NYC Emergency Management said the earthquake, which was about 20 miles north of the city, may have been felt in nearby areas like the Bronx.
Goldberg explains this may not be the end of it: There could still be some tremors or aftershocks ahead in coming days.
RELATED | Here are notable earthquakes felt in the New York City region
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