"At 05:45 hours, a 1.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Astoria Queens area. Its location was 0.5 miles E-NE of Astoria at a depth of 5km," the USGS said.
The USGS noted that "the event was felt in the New York City area" and that "preliminary reports indicate no local life-safety concerns," according to reports.
New York’s official emergency notification system known by the acronym NYCEM announced earlier that the authorities were responding to several explosions on Roosevelt Island. The island is located between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens.
The USGS said the authorities reported "no injuries, no impacts to transit, traffic or utility services and no structural stability issues at this time."
The US energy company Con Edison told Sputnik on Tuesday that it has received no reports of either outages or equipment issues on Roosevelt Island, where the authorities are reportedly investigating the explosions.
Local media reported that firefighters responded to phone calls from residents reporting the explosions at around 6:00 a.m. EST.
Meanwhile, the New York City Fire Department told Sputnik the situation is under control, with the New York Police Department adding that a transformer was believed to have caused the incident.