Minor earthquake shakes northern New Jersey
Posted: 12:18 AM ET

(CNN) — A rare minor earthquake rattled the greater New York City area Monday night, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The magnitude 3.0 quake hit about 10:30 p.m. and was centered near Victory Gardens, N.J., about 35 miles west of New York. The epicenter of the quake was 3 miles underground.

Several residents called CNN to report a possible explosion about the time of the earthquake. Rockaway Township Police Department had no reports of damage or injuries.

Oops, sorry.

haha Someone posted this on fark.com

I thought their take was funny.

"3.0 earthquake rattles NJ, breaking tens of thousands of bottles of Drakar and Grey Goose. Camaro suspension damage alone estimated to be in the millions"

NJ in my opinion is stinky.

though adjacent to what is generally conidered an passive margin, NJ has extensive sets of active faults, mostly soled in hard igneous and metamorphics. Not coincidently, the St. Lawrence River/Seaway is the site of an ancient, failed rift system that, if it had suceeded, would have ripped modern-day Canada from the North American craton, resulting in a vastly different global plate configuration..

Other failed rift-zones in North America include the Rio Grande rift and the Mississippi Rift.

The largest magnitude earthquake (estimated 8.0 on the Richter scale) recorded in the US interior occured in New Madrid, Missouri in 1812. The strength of that quake rerouted the great Mississippi river, forcing its flow to reverse for a perios of time and ringing church bells as far away as Boston, Mass.