A fighter jet from a US Navy base in Maryland may have caused a series of sonic booms near the New Jersey coast that prompted hundreds of residents to report earthquake-like tremors on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Naval Air Station Patuxent River said an F-35C was conducting routine flight tests over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday that may have created sonic booms.

People from New Jersey to Connecticut posted on social media and called police departments to report a series of tremors starting just before 1:30 pm.