Small earthquake reported in Long Island City
By Joan Gralla joan.gralla@newsday.com @JoanGralla Updated June 26, 2019 6:37 PM
An earthquake, probably too small for any person to detect, struck Long Island City, Queens, early Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program.
The 7:26 p.m. quake measured a mere 0.9 on the Richter scale, at a depth of about 1.2 miles, around 1.9 miles south-southeast of Manhattan, the agency’s website said.
A 1.5 earthquake is the smallest that can be felt, the Merriam-Webster dictionary says. A 4.5 tremor can cause “slight damage,” while an 8.5 one is “very devastating.”
The exact coordinates of the Long Island City quake place it just a few blocks south of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, near 10th Street and 43rd Avenue.
Though the National Earthquake Center’s website asks the public to describe how a quake felt, that form was blank on Wednesday morning.
The Long Island City quake was at least the second to strike the area this year. In April, a 3.0 magnitude earthquake was recorded off the South Shore of Long Island; the epicenter was about 33 miles southeast of Southampton, the agency said.
No one reported that tremor to the police of Suffolk County and Southampton Town, officials said.
Joan Gralla is a general assignment reporter who also covers parks, flood control and Holocaust restitution. She’s a former Reuters correspondent who covered politics, economics and markets.
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