Quake comparisons: How Friday's earthquake differed from 2024 Tewksbury quake
The factors play a role in who feels an earthquake, how intense it is and how much damage occurs.
Friday's earthquake in Paramus and the one on April 5, 2024, in Tewksbury differ in three key ways: magnitude, location and depth.
The factors play a role in who feels an earthquake, how intense it is and how much damage occurs.
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1. Magnitude. The strength of an earthquake is based on the logarithmic Richter scale. April 2024's magnitude 4.8 earthquake was 251 times bigger than Friday's magnitude 2.4 earthquake, which is almost 4,000 times stronger, in terms of the amount of energy released. You can see the visual impact on the USGS intensity map, which are reports of the community and who felt it, how much and where.
TEWKSBURY EARTHQUAKE: M 4.8 - 2024 Tewksbury, New Jersey Earthquake
PARAMUS EARTHQUAKE: M 2.4 - 1 km ESE of Paramus, New Jersey
2. Location. April 2024's earthquake happened in Tewksbury in Hunterdon County. Friday's earthquake occurred near Paramus in Bergen County. These are both near the Ramapo fault, which runs through northern New Jersey.
3. Depth. The depth of an earthquake is also very important. The energy from an earthquake radiates away from the epicenter, which means that intensity reduces the farther away you that you get. The deeper the earthquake, the more the earth itself will absorb the radiating energy. If it is closer to the surface, we are more likely to feel it and have damage occur from it. The Tewksbury earthquake occurred 1.62 miles beneath the surface versus Friday's, which occurred 4.78 miles below the surface.
