The earthquake that struck the East Coast earlier this month was felt by an estimated 42 million people and luckily caused little damage, but what are the chances of a bigger, more powerful quake striking the area? And if it does, what could it look like — and are we prepared?

The April 5 phenomenon was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake centered near Whitehouse Station in New Jersey, which is about 40 miles west of New York City.

Shaking was felt from Washington D.C. to Maine, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and it followed a much smaller, 1.7 magnitude earthquake in New York City on Jan. 2. 

Earthquakes are rare along the East Coast, with the most powerful one in the last 100 years hitting in August 2011, clocking 5.8 on the Richter scale. It was centered in Virginia and felt from Washington, D.C. to Boston.

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Before that, an earthquake in South Carolina in 1886 is understood to have measured between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter scale. There is no definitive measurement of that quake since the Richter scale has only been around since the mid-1930s, but the tectonic shift still killed 60 people.

Professor John Ebel, a seismologist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College, tells Fox News Digital that when quakes start breaking 5.0 on the Richter scale, damage begins to occur. 

For instance, the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria last year measured 7.8 and resulted in the death of nearly 62,000 people as tens of thousands of buildings were either destroyed or severely damaged.

California’s Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, meanwhile, measured 6.9 and caused 69 deaths, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake in the Golden State clocked 6.7, killing 57 people. Thousands more were injured. 

“As you go above magnitude five, the shaking becomes stronger and the area over which the strong shaking is experienced becomes wider,” Ebel says. “So if you get a magnitude six, the shaking is ten times stronger than a magnitude five. So had this month’s earthquake been a 5.8, rather than a 4.8, then we would be looking at damage to unreinforced structures in the greater New York City area.”

“Now I have to qualify this and say that in the past few decades, New York City has had an earthquake provision in its building code while New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have all adopted some version of earthquake provisions in their building codes,” Ebel explained. “So modern buildings that are put up today will actually do quite well, even in strong earthquake shaking… If you have a magnitude 6 or even a magnitude seven.”

In terms of the Tri-state area, Ebel says that the region has had smaller earthquakes, but it’s been spared anything that’s been significantly damaging.

An 1884 quake in Brooklyn did cause limited damage and injuries. Seismologists estimated it would have measured in the region of 5.0 and 5.2, while a quake jolted Massachusetts in 1775 in the region of 6.0 and 6.3.

WHAT TO DO DURING AN EARTHQUAKE AND HOW TO PREPARE

“In 1884 there were things knocked from shelves, some cracks in walls that were reported, particularly plaster walls, which crack very easily if a building is shaken,” Ebel said. “There were some brick walls that had some cracks and people panicked because of the very strong shaking.”

A magnitude five earthquake hits the tri-state area once every 120 years, says Ebel, who penned the book “New England Earthquakes: The Surprising History of Seismic Activity in the Northeast.”

“The question is, can we have something bigger? And in my opinion, yes we can,” he said. “We can’t predict earthquakes, and we don’t know when the next one is going to occur, but we do have a low, not insignificant probability of a damaging earthquake at some point.”

Ebel said that the April 5 earthquake has left seismologists baffled since it didn’t occur on the Ramapo Fault zone, highlighting just how hard it is to predict the phenomenon from occurring. The Ramapo Fault zone is a series of small fault lines that runs through New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Spanning more than 185 miles, it was formed about 200 million years ago.

“Right now it’s a seismological mystery,” Ebel said. “We have some earthquakes in our region where we don’t have faults mapped. But that’s even true in California. Not every earthquake occurs on a known or mapped fault in California, so there are still a lot of seismologists have to learn about the exact relationship between old faults and modern earthquakes.”

Ebel noted that buildings aren’t the only thing to consider when earthquakes strike. In the California quakes, overpasses crumbled while the electrical grid can go down too, causing electrical surges and fires.  

Toxic chemicals were knocked off of the shelves of a chemistry building in 1989 and the building had to be evacuated, Ebel said. 

“And you think about hospitals and some industrial facilities having that situation,” he explained. “So you have these things that are not catastrophic necessarily, but are going to be a real problem.”

And an earthquake doesn’t necessarily have to rattle land in order to cause destruction.

A jolt out at sea could trigger a dangerous tsunami, like the one on the edge of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in Canada in 1929. It was felt as far away as New York City.

Waves as high as 23 feet crashed on the shore, according to the International Tsunami Information Center, with up to 28 people losing their lives. 

“A tsunami is not necessarily a very high probability event, but it’s one that we have to think about also,” Ebel says in relation to the East Coast.

The Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 was triggered by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Ebel says a tsunami similar to 1929 could cause a storm surge along the lines of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, where 43 people died in New York City. 

“The threat of an earthquake is not as great as in California, but it’s something that we have to take into account and have emergency plans for and have building codes for,” Ebel says. “Our state and local emergency management agencies in all the northeastern states do earthquake planning — what we call tabletop exercises — where they pretend an earthquake occurs.”

“So those kinds of preparations are made on a regular basis,” he concludes. “Building codes are constantly being reevaluated and approved, not just for earthquakes, but for fires and chemical spills and all kinds of things. So we’re getting more prepared all the time.”

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Before we get into it, I’ll acknowledge what you may be thinking: Using Calendar means handing over even more info to Google.

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Sure, but here’s my take: For the sake of convenience, most of us choose a Big Tech company or two that we’re OK sharing a lot with. If you use Gmail and Google Maps, adding Calendar to the mix won’t make much difference in terms of privacy.

Here are some ideas to get the most out of it

Spoiler: A lot more than just meetings and dentist appointments. And yes, you can definitely use you preferred calendar app for all these things too, if Google isn’t your thing.

Let’s get to the tricks

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A little know-how goes a long way in getting more out of your everyday software.

Know when people are free: I use this daily at work. Put your cursor in the box labeled Search for people under the Meet with heading. Everybody in your organization should be searchable here, so no more setting meetings no one can attend. You can also create a new meeting, add guests and click Find a time under the date to see the attendees’ availability side by side!

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Automatically share meeting minutes: In your meeting details, click Create meeting notes under the event description to generate a Google Doc that automatically gets shared with attendees. It includes a built-in outline with the meeting date, attendees, notes and action items. Pro tip: Attach additional notes, docs, slides or whatever else to the meeting so no one’s looking around for them later!

Never miss a beat: When setting an appointment, simply click Add Notification. Choose how long before the event you’d like to be reminded. Boom! Whether it’s 10 minutes or a day in advance, Google Calendar’s got your back. No more oops moments.

You know I have more amazing tips up my sleeve. Get more Google Cal secrets.

Get tech-smarter on your schedule

Award-winning host Kim Komando is your secret weapon for navigating tech.

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Passwords can definitely be a frustrating part of our lives. Remembering which passwords you used for your dozens of different accounts is nearly impossible without the help of password managers. 

Should you suddenly start receiving constant emails telling you that you have to reset your password for whatever reason (or sometimes with no reason listed) on top of everything else, you may be at the end of your patience.

Several reasons exist for receiving these email messages, and they can range from legitimate to scam to somewhere in between. 

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When you are entering your username and password at a website to access your account, you may see a small “Forgot Password” text link. If you can’t remember your password, and you click this link, the account holding company will send you an email that allows you to reset your password. This type of email reset message, like the one below, would be a legitimate one.

However, some password reset emails you receive are fake, usually attempting to trick you into revealing your username and password to a hacker.

MORE: THIS IS HOW YOUR EMAIL GETS INTO WRONG HANDS

When you receive email messages asking you to reset a password when you did not make the request, the message could be a fake. Some of the reasons you may receive fake emails like this include:

Beware the bait: A hacker is attempting a phishing attack, hoping you’ll click on a fake link in the message.

Privacy alert: You potentially shared your email address at an unsafe website, and hackers are trying to steal your account password by tricking you into revealing it.

Security warning: Your account has some sort of security issue that is triggering these messages.

Update required: You may need to update your software or app to the latest version.

MORE: HOW TO KEEP YOUR ONLINE PASSWORDS SAFE

The password reset email message you are receiving could be a legitimate request. It may indicate that your account is under attack from a hacker. You can protect yourself in a few ways.

Go to the website directly and access your account. Then change your password to make it stronger.

Set up two-factor authentication (2FA) on your account. Should someone figure out how to hack your account password, having the second verification requirement significantly protects you.

Reach out to the website that holds your account for help with taking the necessary steps to protect yourself.

You may receive the message because you need to change your password every few months to match the requirements of the company holding the account.

Never click on a link in the email message as it could be a fake. If you click on it, you may actually give the hacker the information to take over your account rather than protect your account. The best way to protect yourself from clicking malicious links that install malware that may get access to your private information is to have antivirus protection installed on all your devices. This can also alert you of any phishing emails or ransomware scams.

Get my picks for the best 2024 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices.

You can take a few steps to try to reduce the number of emails you receive requesting a password reset.

1. Double-check your username and password. When accessing your account, you may have a typo in your login information. Should you repeatedly attempt to access your account with this error, the company that holds the account may believe a hacking attempt is occurring, triggering an automatic reset. If your web browser automatically populates your username and password for you, make sure this information is free of typos.

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2. Remove unauthorized devices. Some accounts maintain a list of devices authorized to use your account. If a hacker manages to gain some of your personal information, it may be able to add one of its devices to your authorized list, triggering account login errors as it tries to hack your password. Check the list of authorized devices and remove any items you don’t recognize. 

The process varies, depending on the type of account. We’ll cover steps for Microsoft, Gmail, Yahoo and AOL.

Remember to regularly check your account settings and authorized devices to ensure the security of your accounts. If you suspect any unauthorized access, it’s also a good idea to change your passwords and review your account recovery options.

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3. Sort such messages to spam. If you’d prefer to simply not see these kinds of email messages, set up your email client to sort messages like this to a spam folder. (Because many of them are spam, some email clients do this automatically.) Should you ever legitimately request a password reset, though, you’ll need to remember to look in the spam folder for the message.

4. Use a static IP address. Some accounts attempt to recognize your device through your IP address. If you have a dynamic IP address, your IP address changes constantly, meaning the account may not recognize your device, triggering the reset message. This often occurs because you are using a VPN. See if your VPN allows you to use a static IP address.

MORE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CYBERCRIMINAL GETS ACCESS TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

Although it can be frustrating to receive password reset emails, you should investigate any request like this that comes from an account you use regularly. Reach out to the customer service team for the account where you are having the issue. You may find that a simple glitch is causing the issue. Fix that, and you can put a halt to these frustrating messages. Or if it is a fake password reset email, you now know how to handle the situation to stay safe and secure.

Can you share a time when you strengthened your online security measures in response to a threat? What prompted it and how did you do it? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

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