An East Coast earthquake measuring 4.1 magnitude shook an area from New York City to Washington, D.C., for several seconds on Thursday afternoon.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was six miles east-northeast of Dover, Delaware, which happened at 4:47 p.m., Eastern time, WABC-TV reported.
"It's a decently large earthquake for the area because they don't happen very frequently," USGS geophysicist Jana Pursley told Philadelphia's WCAU-TV. Pursley added that she believes the magnitude of the earthquake will change as more data comes in to the agency.
The tremor was first recorded at a 5.1 magnitude but downsized later to 4.1, WCAU-TV said, and was considered shallow, with a depth of five miles.
"I was going to watch the tree lighting ceremony. All of a sudden I felt the couch shake," Edward Moore, of Fairfax County, Virginia told Washington, D.C.'s WRC-TV. He said he was with his dog Rudy and, "When I looked over at her, she was curved up into a ball."
The Washington Post reported there was no known fault associated with the earthquake and that hazard maps produced by the USGS do not show Delaware having a significant seismic hazard.
A 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia on Aug. 23, 2011 damaged the Washington Monument to the point where it had to be closed off from the public to make repairs, according to the National Parks Service. The monument is expected to reopen in the spring of 2019.
Many went to Twitter to share their feelings in the rare East Coast earthquake.
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