So, last night at around 10:30ish I was lying in bed, Cassie was in her crate (which she clearly does not fit in, but we keep it open so that she can be comfortable and sleep if she wants too) and Melissa was brushing her teeth (Peanut was downstairs in his own little world, he probably didn’t realize anything happened). Suddenly the walls shook and vibrated and virtually scared the crap out of all of us. I sat up, Melissa rushed into the bedroom and Cassie slowly walked out of her crate with a very confused look on her face.

Melissa and I quickly rushed downstairs to check on things, the vibration had only last like 2-3- to the very least 5 seconds, but we just wanted to check to see if things were ok…the best way to explain it was that a truck had driven by and downshifted right in front of our house. But the vibrations were not felt in the front but in the back of the house. We shrugged it off until the next morning when we found these things out from nj.com:

Residents likened the earthquake, which struck just after 10:30 p.m., to everything from “a bomb” to an underground explosion to “a thump.”

The epicenter of the quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 3.0, was reported at Victory Gardens, although it could be felt in Rockaway, Dover and Morris Plains, according to Won-Young Kim, a seismologist for the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in Palisades, N.Y.

The communities near the earthquake’s epicenter are in Morris County, about 35 miles west of Midtown Manhattan.

While 3.0 is a rather large earthquake for the metropolitan New York region, a temblor of that magnitude is unlikely to cause any major damage, Mr. Kim said.

Workers at an Exxon Station in Rockaway, N.J., said that the night was going along normally when the earthquake struck.

“It was like a bomb, a strong one,” said Cafer Sahin, 40, an attendant.

Tom Smaga, 27, was working inside the station when, he said, he first heard and then felt the earthquake.

“It was a loud boom and after that it shook the whole building,” Mr. Smaga said. He said the vibrations lasted for about two or three seconds.

Toni Dellamonica, a dispatcher for the Rockaway Township Police Department, said that there had been no reports of injuries or major damage.

Ms. Dellamonica said the earthquake felt like “a rolling rumble,” as if someone was dragging something across the ground.

In Dover, N.J., near the quake’s epicenter, Francis Rodriguez was playing cards with a friend when, she said, “it felt like something exploded underground.”

The shaking did not damage her house, she said, but her friend, Cheryll Post, who was visiting Ms. Rodriguez, said “it was very scary.” Patricia Avila, was in her second-floor apartment in Rockaway, N.J., when she felt what she described as “a loud thump.”

“It was just a bang,” Walter Michalski, a police officer in Dover, N.J., said of Monday’s earthquake. “That’s it. A bang.”

Peter Johnson, a dispatcher for the Morris Plains Police department, said “I wasn’t sure what it was. It was just a shaking.”

Mr. Kim of Lamont-Doherty said that low-level earthquakes are not unusual near that area.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 2 hit Phillipsburg, N.J., on July 28. A 2.6 magnitude quake struck Sussex County, N.J., on Feb. 17, 2006, and another quake, with a magnitude of 2.1, hit Morris County on Dec. 10, 2005.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

NJ.com also had a bunch of other links to more recent articles about the quake which can be view here in case you are interested.

They also had this pic up to show the epicenter:

The craziest is that the epicenter was in Dover, NJ which is right next to us (we live in the little town of Mine Hill) check out this Morris County Map:

And if you are having trouble finding Mine Hill or Dover, they are in the middle, Randolph (which we used to live in) his huge and its right in the middle of the map!

I can remember back when I was at Fairleigh and an RA on 3rd floor Hamilton, one night Melissa and I felt a slight tremor. No one would have noticed it unless they were just sitting there or getting ready to fall alseep.

But I do remember in 1985 (I was three, but I believe I’ve proven to most people I have a great memory of things when I was about 2  1/2 years old) and my parents woke me up and asked me if I felt the Earthquake. I had been sleeping, but I can remember hearing people outside and something that sounded like hissing, perhaps a fire hydrant spewing water or something.

Don’t believe me? Examiner.com had this about yesterday’s Earthquake and how it’s not common:

While not a common occurrence, 47 earthquakes have rattled the New York City metropolitan area since 1974, with the largest being a 4.0 in 1985.

From what we heard, we might be feeling aftershocks for up to two weeks. Lets hope not and that the only thing we have to worry about is getting out of the driveway without any snow.

Honestly, I don’t remember feeling something like that, it was only for less then five seconds, but it was not something I would like to experience all the time.  So, lets hope that it sticks to something once every other decade…

–Cos