Recent New Jersey, New York Earthquakes Are No Cause for Concern

Residents of the New York metropolitan area may be on edge lately after recent earthquakes centered in New Jersey shook the region. Roberto Masis, a seismologist at Rutgers University, however said that the quakes aren't signaling bigger troubles to come.

"I don't think it's a sign that we're going to experience more [earthquakes]. It's a sign, a reminder that we do have earthquakes," Masis told CBS News New York.

A 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck during the weekend of Aug. 2-3 in Bergen County, approximately two weeks after seismometers detected a 1.6 magnitude earthquake farther west in Morris County.

The earthquake from earlier this month had an epicenter in Hasbrouck Heights. Reports of the earth shaking could be felt in New York's Lower Hudson Valley, across the Hudson River in Upper Manhattan, and western Connecticut. 

No damages were reported from the quakes.

According to CBS News New York, the Ramapo Fault, a significant fault line in New Jersey, caused the Morris County earthquake that occurred on Monday, July 21. But it's still unclear where the earthquake on Saturday, Aug. 2, originated.

"We do not know what specific fault caused the earthquake," Masis stated, largely because seismologists aren't aware of every fault line.

"It's pretty much just about every earthquake, we discover a new fault line," said Oliver Boyd, a research geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey, in a statement to CBS News New York.