On Friday, April 5 a 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit the East Coast with its epicenter in New Jersey. The Fordham University community experienced shaking throughout both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. 

At Rose Hill, the William Spain Seismic Observatory monitors seismic activity in the region. The Observatory has been monitoring seismic activity for almost 100 years.  

“It can detect large earthquakes from around the globe, and we routinely see those events on our instruments,” said Professor Stephen Holler of the physics department. “The event on Friday was not a major earthquake, but it did release enough energy to rattle the area and produce some structural damage close to the epicenter.”

No major damage was reported in the New York City area. Public Safety updated the community at 4 p.m. via email addressing any potential damage to the campus.

“No members of the community were injured, and there was no damage to any of Fordham’s campuses,” Public Safety said in their statement.

Students shared that they had various reactions to the earthquake.

“I woke up to my bed shaking and immediately called out for my roommate to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. At first I thought it was sleep paralysis, my next thought being that the wind had gotten so strong again that it was shaking the building of O’Hare,” said Sophie Maselli, FCRH ’26. “I was concerned, curious as to what the protocol for an earthquake was and slightly dismayed that it took the school over two hours to put out a public safety announcement.”

Like many New York City residents, some students said that they did not notice the quake. 

“I was in a car, I didn’t even notice it,” said Cadence Wahl, FCRH ’26.

Similarly, Delaney Gouvia, FCRH ’27 was unaware that there was an earthquake: “I was on the second floor of McShane and the only reason I knew it happened was because people were texting me about it.” 

There were several aftershocks throughout the rest of the day and, according to seismologists, they could continue for up to a week.

“It was reported that the quake was felt as far north as Boston. This is due to the type of rock which underlies the region. This dense, interconnected rock provides an effective medium to transmit seismic waves over large distances,” said Holler. “The ground has settled down, but aftershocks may continue for some time. The largest aftershock occurred around 6 p.m. Friday evening and was measured as a magnitude 3.8. This is 10 times less intense than the initial quake.”

There was another earthquake earlier this year in January with an epicenter in Astoria, Queens; it had a 1.7 magnitude. Last week was the biggest magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884.