When’s the next big one for New Jersey? State gets 9 minor earthquakes in 3 weeks

☑️ New Jersey has had 9 earthquakes over the past two weeks

☑️ Is NJ on track for 'the big one?'

☑️ The number of earthquakes had slowed down since 2024

It has been an active three weeks in New Jersey with nine minor earthquakes in two weeks. Is this setting the state up for something bigger?

Kenneth Miller, a geologist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers, said the Aug. 5 magnitude 2.7 earthquake in Hillsdale was likely an aftershock of the Aug. 2 earthquake in Hasbrouck Heights. They both took place on the Ramapo Fault, which runs from Rockland County in New York, southwest through New Jersey into eastern Pennsylvania.

Major earthquakes possible in New Jersey?

Miller says that while earthquake activity has increased in the past two year, the "big one," a devastating earthquake of a magnitude 5 or more on the Richter scale is unlikely to happen in New Jersey.

"What causes really big earthquakes is when plates come together. New Jersey sits in the middle of a plate called the North American Plate, and generally mid-plate earthquakes are small. New Jersey earthquakes are relatively small compared to our friends in California or Oregon or Washington," Miller told Eric Scott during the NJ 101.5 Morning Show.

ALSO READ: Early morning crash on Route 1 closed road for over 12 hours

'Mother Nature has her own way'

According to the USGS, New Jersey had 23 earthquakes in 2023 but the number spiked to 232 in 2024 including the magnitude 4.8 quake centered in Tewksbury which Miller says helped stimulate the earth. It's starting to slow down.

"In general we are in a very passive continental margin. It's one where the continent meets the oceans with minimum disturbance. Sometimes these passive margins can be a bit aggressive and have a few faults and remind us that Mother Nature does have her own way," Miller said. "But basically it seems very unlikely to have any very large-scale earthquake like you do where the plates of the earth come together."

Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom