Two small earthquakes shake NJ Sunday morning, USGS reports

Although they went largely undetected by most New Jerseyans, things got a little shaky Sunday morning as two small earthquakes rattled parts of the Garden State, according to the The US Geological Survey.

Geologists say both quakes were very small - less than 2.0 on the Richter scale. The first quake hit at about 5:11 a.m. southeast of Westville, Gloucester County at a depth of 5 kilometers. The second occurred at about 7:15 a.m. east-northeast of Highlands, Monmouth County according to the USGS, which shows that the earthquake hit at a depth of 4.4 kilometers below ground.

New Jersey State Police Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Williams said the quakes "did not cause any alarm" and police did not receive any notification after they occurred. No damage was reported.

USGS data shows that there have been 15 earthquakes, including Sunday's, in New Jersey in 2016 including a 2.1 magnitude quake in Ringwood on January.

NJ 101.5 Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said that while earthquakes in New Jersey are rare, they do happen, although one as small as those that occurred Sunday would probably not even be felt by most people and are not a cause for concern.

"Earthquakes are rare in New Jersey, and to have two in one day is even more unusual, but they certainly happen occasionally," Zarrow said. "Nothing to worry about though...2.0 on the Richter scale is barely perceptible to the average person."

On Jan. 28, people in parts of the Garden State also reported an earthquake that turned out to be a sonic boom occurring during a military test flight off the coast of Maryland from Naval Air Station Patuxent River. A Defense Department spokesman confirmed at the time that "an F-35C from the station in Patuxent was conducting “supersonic testing in a cleared military flight area” off the east coast Thursday involving an F/A-18 aircraft along with an F-35C aircraft."

Dan Alexander contributed to this report.

Toniann Antonelli is a social content producer for NJ 101.5. She can be reached at toniann.antonelli@townsquaremedia.com, or on Twitter @ToniRadio1015.