Mild earthquake jolts parts of Connecticut, New York

DANBURY, Connecticut (Reuters) -- A mild earthquake jolted parts of Connecticut and New York state early Tuesday, but there were no reports of injuries or damage, officials said.

The quake measured 2.5 and struck at 1:42 a.m. Eastern time , said the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado. It was centered in the small town of Carmel, New York, about 10 miles northwest of Danbury, Connecticut.

Quakes with a magnitude of less than 4.0 are considered minor.

Dozens of people called local police to say they felt the ground shaking and other rumblings, said Danbury Police Sgt. Alan Mattie.

Most callers said they heard an explosion, but Mattie said at police headquarters it felt "like the air-conditioning system had just kicked in."

Kay Lee said her house in Patterson, New York, rattled a bit but "made more noise than it shook."

Seismic activity is not unheard of in New York and Connecticut, scientists said. The same general region had a quake measuring 4.0 in 1985, said Leonardo Seeber, research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

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