2.7-magnitude earthquake felt in New Jersey, New York area
Dozens of people from Staten Island to southwest Connecticut have reported to the USGS they felt weak or light shaking.
The earthquake occurred roughly 8 miles below the surface of the Earth, according to the USGS. The shallow depth likely contributed to how many people felt at least some shaking, even though the quake itself was weak.
The unique characteristics of the rocks that make up the Earth's crust and mantle in the eastern US also play a role in how far the most intense waves of seismic energy can travel, according to the USGS. Rocks here are much older, denser and harder — compressed by time — than they are in the West, according to the USGS. This makes them more efficient conduits of the seismic energy released by an earthquake, allowing it to travel in a more potent form over longer distances.
Hillsdale is about 25 miles northwest of Manhattan.
CNN's Eric Zerkel contributed to this report.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This Video Of Mariah Carey Finding Out That Katy Perry Went To Space Is The Funniest Thing I've Seen All Week, And You Need To Watch It
Back in April, Katy Perry and five others took a 10-minute trip to space thanks to Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin aerospace company, and it was basically all anyone talked about for about a week. Maybe even two. Blue Origin / Via Gilbert Flores / Getty Images Between the backlash and memes, the interviews and think-pieces, it's almost impossible to imagine that anyone with access to the internet could've missed the news. Which brings us to the one and only, Mariah Carey. Related: In a new interview with the BBC, radio host Scott Mills asked Mariah if she could ever see herself following in Katy's footsteps — only to very quickly realize she had no idea what he was talking about. Even with her big black shades on, the confusion on Mariah's face was evident. 'Did she go to space?' she said. Related: Mariah has a reputation for leaning into a bit every now and then if she's feeling shady; however, in this instance, she appeared genuinely baffled as she dug for answers: 'Where'd she go?!' she asked, looking around the room. Someone off camera chimed in to give Mariah the context that she needed — i.e., that Katy's space mission was rather brief — and the music icon was even more intrigued. 'Into orbit and back? She's like, floating in the…,' she said. 'And this is true?' BBC / Via Related: When Scott clarified that he was, in fact, not making it up, Mariah expressed her admiration, while also seeming totally unbothered by the whole thing, which is a skill in itself. 'Wow, alright Katy,' she said, totally deadpan. 'I'm not mad at her. That's pretty amazing.' And just when you thought the clip couldn't get any better, Scott returns to his initial question of, 'Would you do it?' to which she replied: 'I think I've done enough.' Indeed, you have, Mariah. It truly doesn't get more iconic than that. The video has only been up for a few hours, and already, people are obsessed — not only with the fact that Mariah had no idea about the space trip, but just how chill she is about the whole thing. 'I want to be THIS genuinely chill about actually everything,' one TikTok user wrote. ''I think I've done enough' says it all 🤣' added another. 'Mariah lives in her own World. everyone else is irrelevant 😅,' commented someone else, while another said: 'Only space she knows, is her own 🤣 - Queen Aura' Related: Well, if we needed any more confirmation that Mariah is simply not like the rest of us, then this was it. Do yourself a favor and watch the full clip here! More on this 14 Suuuuuper Awkward Moments From That Space LaunchMatt Stopera · April 14, 2025 'She Never Misses': People Are Obsessed With Mariah Carey's No BS Response To A Question About Jeff Bezos's WeddingEllen Durney · July 10, 2025 Katy Perry Sang "What A Wonderful World" While In Space, And No, This Isn't SatireNatasha Jokic · April 14, 2025 Also in Celebrity: Also in Celebrity: Also in Celebrity: Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. pulls funding for mRNA vaccines as scientists pursue breakthrough treatments for HIV, cancer, the flu and more
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that the federal government is canceling nearly $500 million in funding for the development of mRNA vaccines, a revolutionary new technology that was first put into widespread use during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a video explaining the decision posted to social media, Kennedy said that the Department of Health and Human Services has determined that 'mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits' for respiratory viruses like COVID-19. He also claimed that the pandemic showed 'mRNA vaccines don't perform well against viruses that affect the upper respiratory tract.' That statement runs counter to a wide body of research finding that COVID vaccines saved millions — if not tens of millions — of lives over the course of the pandemic. A total of 22 projects funded by a government agency called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will be affected by the funding freeze, according to the department. A few projects that are in their final stages will be allowed to continue, but 'no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated.' 'This isn't just about vaccines. It's about whether we'll be ready when the next crisis hits. Cutting mRNA development now puts every American at greater risk,' Rick Bright, who directed BARDA in the early stages of the pandemic before being reassigned by the Trump administration, told NBC News. The decision doesn't mean that research into mRNA vaccines will stop entirely, but it does cut off a major source of funding that helped the vaccines become a reality in the first place. By the time the pandemic had started, the government had already given an estimated $337 million in grants for research into mRNA vaccines. That support over the course of decades put scientists in a position to make COVID vaccines available to the public at a record-shattering pace of less than a year. How do mRNA vaccines work? The 'm' in mRNA stands for messenger. In the most basic terms, it's a piece of genetic code that tells our cells what to do. Scientists have discovered how to harness this process to make vaccine development much faster and less expensive. Traditional vaccines typically use a dead or weakened version of a virus to stimulate an immune response that effectively teaches the body how to combat the real version if it ever encounters it. These types of vaccines can take a long time to develop because they rely on the slow, often complicated process of cultivating and modifying the actual virus into a safe and effective form. Using mRNA is much faster because the crucial ingredients can be created and customized in a lab. It took Moderna just two days to produce its mRNA vaccine for COVID in January 2020, before most people had ever even heard of the virus. The vaccines carry a snippet of mRNA that instructs the body to produce a small portion of a virus, usually a protein on its outer membrane, which is enough to trigger the same type of immune response that is prompted by traditional vaccines. The quicker process also means that existing mRNA vaccines can be modified more rapidly when viruses evolve. Despite Kennedy's claims, mRNA-based COVID vaccines have been found to be just as effective at preventing severe infections and death as vaccines made using other methods. After the vaccines became widely available, unvaccinated people were 11 times more likely to die of COVID than those who were fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two researchers who helped achieve early breakthroughs in mRNA vaccines were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2023. Applications beyond COVID The introduction of COVID vaccines didn't just mark a turning point in the deadliest pandemic in modern history. It also provided evidence of mRNA's potential to protect people from a whole range of diseases. Just last week, researchers released promising results from early trials of new mRNA-based vaccines for HIV, a huge breakthrough in a pursuit that has confounded scientists for more than 40 years. There have been tremendous strides made in drugs that protect people from catching the virus or keep them healthy if they do contract it, but the limitations of those treatments still mean that more than 600,000 people are dying every year of AIDS — mostly in the developing world. Experts see a potential vaccine as a key to finally conquering the virus. There is also optimism that mRNA could be an effective tool in combating the seasonal flu. Current flu vaccines vary widely in effectiveness from year to year, and are only about 60% effective at their best, because it can be hard for experts to predict which strain of the virus will be more dominant in any given flu season. Several pharmaceutical companies are developing mRNA flu vaccines that could become a powerful tool for fighting influenza because of how quickly they can be adapted to match the nature of the virus at any given time. That speed could be especially important if a novel flu strain, like bird flu, causes a severe outbreak. There is even some promise that mRNA might one day be used to make a universal flu vaccine that covers all strains. The holy grail for mRNA is cancer. Though vaccines are typically used to prevent disease, there are several vaccines in development that show 'real hope' of being an effective treatment for people with cancer. Those include 'individualized' vaccines that are custom-made for each patient's specific needs. An mRNA vaccine for RSV is already available to certain high-risk adults. Other possible applications include the Zika virus and cytomegalovirus, an infection that is particularly dangerous for babies and people with compromised immune systems. Though experts say the rollback of U.S. government funding is a setback for these projects, some also expressed optimism that mRNA breakthroughs will continue to come even without America's support. 'Will this dent what's going on in the U.S.? Unquestionably,' Kate Bingham, who led the United Kingdom's COVID vaccine task force, told the Guardian. 'Does that mean it's negative for the world? Not necessarily.' Solve the daily Crossword
Gizmodo
13 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
Everything to Remember Before Watching ‘Alien: Earth'
One of the best things about the new show, Alien: Earth, is that you do not need to be an Alien superfan to enjoy it. It's not dependent on the plots of the seven-plus films in the franchise and is only connected to them in a few tangential ways. For now, at least. Nevertheless, there are a few things worth keeping in mind as we get closer to the August 12 debut. Here they are. The Alien franchise began in 1979 with Ridley Scott's film, Alien. It continued in 1986 with James Cameron's sequel, Aliens, which was then followed by the 1992 David Fincher sequel Alien 3 and then 1997's Alien: Resurrection by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Those all take place in chronological order. The franchise continued in a few mostly unrelated crossover Alien vs. Predator films before being reimagined in 2012 by Ridley Scott's return to the franchise, Prometheus. That was a prequel to everything that came before and was followed by 2017's Alien: Covenant. Most recently, Fede Alvarez made a movie called Alien: Romulus, which is set between the events of the first two movies. Basically, if you want to have a blast mainlining Alien movies, you can, but almost all of that is superfluous to the new show, save for the following. One of the things Alien: Earth does assume you remember about the Alien franchise is the aliens themselves. Though we often just refer to them as 'aliens,' the proper in-universe name is 'xenomorph.' Where the xenomorphs came from, where they live, and most of the backstory for them are largely left unanswered in the franchise, though Prometheus and Covenant do offer a few clues. What is definitely known is how they are created, and that's very important. A xenomorph queen lays an egg. That egg has a spider-like creature in it often referred to as a 'facehugger.' It's called that because the egg hatches when it senses a viable host, and the creature hugs the face of the being, implanting the being with an embryo. That embryo then grows inside the being, eventually hatching by bursting out of their chest. This is a baby xenomorph, nicknamed a 'chestburster' for obvious reasons. The chestburster then feeds and grows rapidly into the fully grown xenomorph. A xenomorph is a straight killing machine. Fast, nimble, and deadly. It also has a natural defense mechanism in that its blood is acid, so it burns anything that makes it bleed. All of which is very important information to know as you dive into Alien: Earth. Alien: Earth is set in 2120, which is three years before the events of the first Alien film. What that means is the crew of the Nostromo, the ship that's invaded by a xenomorph in the first film, is still in cryosleep on their way home to Earth from a deep-space mining mission. In three years, for some reason, they'll be woken up by a distress call that just so happens to draw them to a planet filled with xenomorph eggs. Whether or not that has anything to do with the events we see in Alien: Earth is one of the show's biggest mysteries and certainly a potential future storyline. But that's a few years away in canon. Once the Nostromo gets the call, though, the events of the movie Alien take place over a few days. Then Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is lost in space for 57 years. Once awake, she learns the planet the Nostromo landed on, LV-426, now has a full colony of people on it, and so begins the plots of the next few movies. We mention all this because, in regard to Alien: Earth, there's about a 63-year window where it can operate without messing too much with the continuity of the original films. There is an exception, though, which we'll get to after explaining some more. In Alien, Ripley and her Nostromo crew work for a company called Weyland-Yutani. A company that, we later learn, knowingly sent the ship to LV-426 to pick up a xenomorph so that it could be brought back to Earth to study. A company that deemed the crew members expendable compared to the xenomorph. A company that, in Aliens and Alien 3, tries to do the same in different ways. It just really, really wants a xenomorph to study and, somehow, figure out how to weaponize. Alien: Earth starts on a Weyland-Yutani ship, the USCSS Maginot, which has been in space for 65 years. However, unlike the Nostromo, which was a mining ship, the Maginot has been specifically acquiring alien life forms, including the xenomorph. That ship, for reasons revealed on the show, then crash lands on Earth in a city controlled by a rival company, Prodigy. So, what Alien: Earth is saying is Weyland-Yutani is aware of xenomorphs (among other creatures) well before the events of the films and was *this close* to getting one back to Earth. The Weyland-Yutani mega-corporation was created due to a merger of two companies founded by the Weyland family and the Yutani family. We don't learn a lot about them in the early films, but in Prometheus, we see that Peter Weyland had grand plans about 30 years before the events of the show. Alien: Earth doesn't negate any of that, but it doesn't deal with it either. Instead, we spend a lot of time with the Yutanis, who are—at least in this moment—controlling the company. Basically, even though Prometheus takes place before Alien: Earth and certainly offers some larger context in regard to the xenomorphs and advancement of human technology, it's not crucial to the plot in any way. It just lives on its own. Watch it if you'd like, think about that it happened, but it doesn't play a role yet. As mentioned above, basically every Alien story is about people on Earth (mostly Weyland-Yutani employees) hoping to capture and harness the power of the xenomorph. To what end specifically? The movies never get there because the xenos almost always kill everyone first. But it's important to know that the drive for technological and financial superiority is crucial to the franchise. Whoever controls the xenomorphs could wield incredible power. If they can control them. One other crucial piece of Alien DNA that's in Alien: Earth is androids. Seemingly every Alien film has a Weyland-Yutani android as part of the plot. They are human-looking robots with white goo for blood who are loyal to their makers to a fault. That continues in Alien: Earth too, but we get to learn much more about them and their evolutions. Alien: Earth debuts with a two-part premiere August 12 on both Hulu and FX and will continue each Tuesday after that. Episodes drop at 8 p.m. ET on Hulu and 8 p.m. ET/PT on FX. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
