January 30, 1979: Central Jersey is Hit With an Earthquake

January 30, 1979: A rare earthquake strikes Central Jersey, and affects nearby New York City.

It hit at 11:31 AM, with an epicenter in Old Bridge, in an area, appropriately enough, named Cheesequake, which, as The New York Times' writeup of the event said, "is named for some quivering ground in a big tidal bog there."

It measured at 3.8 on the Richter scale, making it the biggest in the New York Tri-State Area since 1957. There had also been a minor quake in 1927, and a bigger one, the Amityville Quake of 1884, which shook all of New York City and was felt as far away as Vermont and Maryland.

This time, despite rattling windows across Raritan Bay in Staten Island, and even as far away as the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn -- City residents described it variously as like "an explosion," like "a low‐flying jet," or "like a subway train running through a room" -- no damage was reported.

I was 9 years old, and in the 4th grade at Bowne-Munro Elementary School in East Brunswick, just 6 miles from the epicenter. None of us had ever felt anything like that before. We knew earthquakes were common in various places in the world, including in California, but we never expected to feel one in New Jersey. And we haven't since. So, even though there was no damage, it still stands out to us.

*

January 30, 1979 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended 9 days earlier, with the Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 127-108 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 109-105 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Houston Rockets, 112-106 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Chicago Bulls, 112-108 in overtime at the Chicago Stadium.

* The San Diego Clippers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 117-113 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). Marques Johnson scored 39 in defeat for the Bucks.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets, 82-76 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Minnesota North Stars, 5-4 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Washington Capitals, 7-4 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-1 at the Checkerdome, as the St. Louis Arena was then known.

And there were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The New England Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Springfield Civic Center (now the MassMutual Center) in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the Whalers were playing while the Hartford Civic Center was rebuilt after its snow-caused roof collapse the year before. And the Birmingham Bulls beat the Quebec Nordiques, 2-1 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama.