Rare earthquake hits US east coast, felt in New York
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake has struck the US in a rare seismological occurrence for the northeast, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake, previously reported at magnitude 5.1 and then at 4.4, was centred in Delaware's Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday, according to a statement from the Delaware Emergency Management Agency.
The quake was felt by some people in the New York City area.
It's centre was less than 17 kilometres from the city of Dover and less than a kilometre from Donas Landing.
There were no reports of injuries or damage, officials said.
The quake was downgraded to a magnitude 4.1 after data came in from several monitoring stations, US Geological Survey geophysicist Rafael Abreu said by telephone.
It was felt in Philadelphia in the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania, some 85 kilometres from the epicentre.
The quake was shallow, only eight kilometres deep, which would have amplified its effect, and some people reported feeling light shaking in areas around New York City and Baltimore, according to the USGS website.
Many social media users also confirmed feeling the temblor and #earthquake had quickly risen to the top of trending topics on Twitter with more than 11,000 tweets mentioning the hashtag.
