Senate candidate from New Jersey mocked for linking Friday's earthquake to climate change

A U.S. Senate candidate from New Jersey was trolled and mocked online for suggesting that Friday's East Coast earthquake was a result of climate change.

"I experienced my first earthquake in NJ,” Christina Amira Khalil, wrote Friday in a now-deleted post on X. "We never get earthquakes. The climate crisis is real."

She added: "The weirdest experience ever.”

Soon enough, social media users and other public personalities including Elon Musk and Rep. Dan Crenshaw mocked Khalil for her take on the incident. A community note was also added under her tweet explaining that New Jersey is located on a fault line and that the earthquake has nothing to do with climate change.

While Musk reacted to the post with a laughing emoji, Crenshaw wrote: "I was just joking about people blaming climate change and then this genius pops up."

Though Khalil deleted the post after the backlash, she later posted a new one saying: "My entire life in NJ, I have never experienced anything like this."

Social media users continued to mock Khalil under the new post, asking her to explain the connection between climate change and the earthquake.

'I still live my best life,' says Khalil

In a post Monday, that appeared to address the backlash, Khalil said: "I will never understand why climate deniers are so obsessed with me. Your emails and messages don't get read, they get deleted, you get blocked, and I still live my best life."

Earthquake in New York and New Jersey

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake was recorded in New Jersey and surrounding states and New York City on Friday morning. It has since been determined to be one of the strongest in state history and the strongest in the area since 1884.

The temblor was reported about 5 miles north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, at about 10:23 a.m. Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 45 miles from New York City, where residents reported shaking furniture and floors.

People reported feeling the shaking as far north as Maine and as far south as Norfolk, Virginia, following the quake, according to USGS.

The quake was followed by a 3.8 magnitude around 6 p.m., with an epicenter about four miles southwest of Gladstone, New Jersey according to the USGS. However, no significant damage or injuries were reported.

How are earthquakes caused?

Contrary to Khalil's post, earthquakes have no connection to climate change.

An earthquake occurs because of slippage between the earth's tectonic plates, according to the USGS. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane.

They usually occur "when slowly accumulated strain within the Earth's crust is suddenly released along a fault," states "Earthquake Risk in New Jersey," a publication of the New Jersey Geological Survey.

While there are many faults in New Jersey, the best known is the Ramapo Fault, which runs from southeastern New York to eastern Pennsylvania, according to the earth Institute at Columbia University and northeast-southwest in North Jersey.

The majority of New Jersey's quakes occurred around this fault area.

Contributing: Lucas Frau, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.