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Jersey quake: Another one coming?
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Could New Jersey be hit by the same type of earthquake as last night's -- or even worse? Strap yourself in for the answer.
The state is in the range for a 5.0 magnitude shock that would make last night's 3.0 bounce seem like a pothole, experts say.
The last serious quake in the state was a 5.5 blast in 1884 off Sandy Hook -- the kind that does serious structural damage.
Such shockers occur roughly every 120 years. Unless a 4.0 that rocked the state in Oct. 1985 fills the quota, we're overdue.
"Right now is when we should hit a five," Alexander Gates, geology professor and chair of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at Rutgers-Newark, told the Star-Ledger of Newark. "We're in the range for that.
"It could come tomorrow. It could come 100 years from now," Gates told the Ledger. "You don't know."
Earthquakes in New Jersey ordinarily occur a few times a year, but they're usually too small for people to even notice.
They tend to occur more often in the state's northwest corner, right about where last night's hit (See: Quake Freaks Jersey). Experts cite more active faults and fractures in the earth.
Could it get worse than 5.0?
Probably not for a long time.
A 7.0 occurs every 3,400 years, Gates said.
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