Magnitude 4.7 earthquake hits New York City

An earthquake has hit the New York City region.

The initial details pegged it at a 5.5 magnitude earthquake but that was later lowered to 4.7 by the USGS. That’s a moderate size globally but highly unusual for a city that doesn’t really get earthquakes. The largest known earthquake in this region occurred was back in 1884 and had an estimated magnitude of approximately 5.0.

The center of the earthquake was about 30 km (20 miles) west of North Plainfield, New Jersey or close to Lebanon, NJ. Shaking was felt a long distance from the area but early reports of damage are minimal.

This comes after a large 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan earlier this week. It was the largest quake there in 25 years and caused extensive damage. The magnitude scale of earthquakes is logarithmic and that means the Taiwan quake was 400 times bigger and released 8000 times more energy.

An earthquake of that size isn’t unthinkable in New York though and the city certainly isn’t built for it. A 2008 study from Columbia University found that the New York area was at “substantially greater” risk of a 6 or 7 magnitude earthquake than was previously thought.

The last notable earthquake on the eastern seaboard was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia. That resulted in no deaths and only minor injuries but was felt as far north as Canada.

This is not going to be a market mover but markets are certainly moving coincidentally with gold jumping $30 to a new record high at $2317.

The US dollar rose earlier today on a strong non-farm payrolls report but has given some back in the last hour or so as risk trades climb broadly. It’s a retracement of the move from yesterday that was sparked by fears of an Iran-Israel war.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.