Delaware reacts to 4.1 magnitude earthquake
LITTLE CREEK, Del. (WPVI) -- The 4.1 magnitude earthquake that struck near Dover, Delaware was the talk of the First State on Friday.
The quake hit late Thursday afternoon, and it was felt as far away as New York City.
Mickey Little of Little Creek says he feels fortunate. His home and wood shop are about two miles away from the epicenter of the quake.
He says the earthquake was powerful.
"The whole house moved right and then it kept moving, and that's when I started praying like 'oh no.' I thought my chimneys were going to fall through the roof," he said.
He ran outside to find the local wildlife in a panic.
"It broke up their patterns, how geese fly, they were all scared. And that's when I said 'it must be an earthquake,'" Little said.
Others in town fled in fear that their homes could collapse.
"We thought the garage blew up," Bonnie Pinder of Carey's Diesel garage.
Dr. Helen Janiszewski of the Carnegie Institution of Science based in Washington D.C. and her partner were planting seismometers around the area to track potential aftershocks.
"It was only a magnitude 4.1 so the aftershocks shouldn't be much bigger than a 3," Janiszewski said.
Why did the earthquake happen here in the first place?
"Millions of years ago this coast was active, and so there are fault lines that can get reactivated from the stresses on the earth, so they still happen here but they're just not as frequent," she said.
As for the aftershocks, she says they could potentially happen for years after this.
No injuries or damage were reported from the quake.
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