• New York City experienced an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 4.8 on Friday.
  • Eighteen quakes with 2.4-or-greater magnitude have occurred in or around NYC since 1737, records show.
  • The last major earthquake felt in NYC was a 5.8-magnitude quake that hit Virginia in 2011.

On Friday, residents across New York City’s five boroughs and the tri-state area experienced a rare earthquake.

With an estimated magnitude of 4.8, the quake’s epicenter was located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Other cities along the East Coast, including Philadelphia and Boston, also reported feeling the ground shake.

While unusual, earthquakes have been documented in New York City for centuries

New York City’s history of seismic activity dates back to the 1700s.

Before Friday’s quake, data from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University showed that 18 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.4 or higher have occurred in or around New York City since 1737.

Daily News front page September 5, 1944, Headline: QUAKE ROCKS N.Y. 16 STATES – East Coast From Delaware to Canada Shaken; Wisconsin Hit – ALL FIVE BOROS FEEL IT Foto: New York Daily News via Getty images

In 1884, the tremors from a 5.2-magnitude quake in New York City were felt from Virginia to Maine, though no major structural damage was reported, according to news reports at the time.

More recently, a 2.4-magnitude quake shook Queens and Manhattan’s Upper East Side in January 2001, while parts of Queens and the Upper West Side felt a 2.6 earthquake in October 2001.

The largest earthquakes in NYC history

The largest-ever earthquakes to rattle New York City both had a magnitude of 5.8.

The first — based in Massena, New York, a town near the Canadian border — struck the city in 1944.

People gather in the streets near the courthouse in Lower Manhattan in New York August 23, 2011 as buildings were evacuated. One of the strongest earthquakes to strike the US east coast in decades rattled offices Tuesday in downtown Washington and caused panicked evacuations from skyscrapers as far away as New York.The Pentagon, the US Capitol and Union Station in the nation’s capital were all evacuated after the 5.9-magnitude quake, which was shallow with its epicenter only 0.6 miles (one kilometer) underground.The disruption to cell phone services in the hour after the quake added to the sense of panic in a country preparing to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Foto: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Another 5.8 earthquake in 2011 that hit Louisa County, Virginia — near the capital Richmond — was also felt in New York City.

It was likely the most widely-felt earthquake in US history due to the population density of the East Coast, according to the USGS.

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