Saturday October 27 06:27 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) - A minor earthquake shook the New York City area early Saturday, rattling the nerves of some residents still jumpy in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A magnitude-2.6 earthquake hit under Manhattan around 1:42 a.m., said Dr. John Ebel, director of the Weston Observatory at Boston College, which monitors seismic activity in the Northeast. "That's more than a tremor. That's a small earthquake," Ebel said.

At first, police scrambled to determine the source as 911 calls flooded in reporting shaking buildings and a booming sound, said Detective Edward Reuss, a spokesman for the New York Police Department. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, Reuss said. Recovery work continued uninterrupted at the site of the World Trade Center collapse.

Carolyn Bell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites), said the quake was felt into Long Island and New Jersey. New Yorker Josephine Toscamo said she was woken by a loud boom. "I'm a little shaken up so I'm going to spend the night at my friend's," she said.

The last significant natural seismic event to strike the city was a magnitude-2.4 earthquake on Jan. 17.

-- Rich Marsh (marshr@airmail.net), October 27, 2001

Answers

New York rattled by mild, rare earthquake NEW YORK, Oct 27 (AFP) - New York City was rattled early Saturday by a mild earthquake measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale, US seismologists reported. The United States Geological Survey, which tracks seismic activity, said the temblor occurred at around 1:42 a.m. (0542 GMT) and was centered in midtown Manhattan not far from Central Park.

While the quake was considered mild, it was one of the most powerful temblors ever to strike Manhattan, and could be felt felt as far away as eastern Long Island and western New Jersey. Authorities said there were no immediate reports of casualties or property damage, but city residents already feeling jittery because of the Septenber 11 terrorist attacks flooded police and fire rescue emergency phones line to report the unusual occurence, according to local media reports.

-- Rich Marsh (marshr@airmail.net), October 27, 2001.