A 4.8 magnitude earthquake rattled New Jersey on Friday morning, prompting speculation about whether the upcoming total solar eclipse was to blame for the shaking.
Millions of people felt the shaking in several states, including New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania and as far away as Maine. Many took to social media to express their surprise. A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) spokesperson said that although a quake of this magnitude is uncommon in the region, it is not unexpected.
During a USGS press briefing about the event on Friday afternoon, a questioner asked if the upcoming total solar eclipse was to blame. USGS seismologist Paul Earle replied that eclipses have no effect on earthquakes.
"This is unrelated to the solar eclipse," Earle said. "Earthquakes of this size have no correlation with celestial bodies."
On Monday, the moon will be positioned so that the entire disc of the sun will be blocked in 13 states, plunging millions of people into darkness in the early afternoon. The path of totality will start in Mexico and extend across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine before heading over the North Atlantic.
Friday's event was the strongest quake felt in the region since 1950. It is not yet known what damage, if any, resulted from the shaking.
Several conspiracy theories have spread online regarding Monday's eclipse, as well as speculation that the celestial phenomenon could spark earthquakes and severe thunderstorms. However, the USGS said there's no evidence that such events will occur because of the eclipse.
"It has never been demonstrated that there is a causal relationship between space weather and earthquakes," the USGS said on its website. "Indeed, over the course of the Sun's 11-year variable cycle, the occurrence of flares and magnetic storms waxes and wanes, but earthquakes occur without any such 11-year variability.
"Since earthquakes are driven by processes in the Earth's interior, they would occur even if solar flares and magnetic storms were to somehow cease occurring," the USGS said
Francisco Diego of University College London, a veteran of 20 solar eclipse expeditions, previously told Newsweek that the only effect of total solar eclipses was a rapid cooling in the "very local atmosphere and land." And that lasts for only a few minutes.
Diego added that any claims about resulting earthquakes and thunderstorms don't "deserve any serious attention" and are "irresponsible fabrications."
Uncommon Knowledge
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