A study released Saturday examining recent earthquake activity around NYC shows many small faults believed to be inactive could contribute to a major quake.
Columbia University scientists also detected a line of seismic activity stretching from Connecticut to Westchester.
The fault line comes within two miles of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Another fault line was already known to exist near the plant — putting it at an intersection of faults.
The study finds many lives and hundreds of billions of dollars could be at risk because of population density and concentration of buildings in the city.
However, the study acknowledges big earthquakes are rare in the region.
(Source: NY1)
6 Responses
I wouldn’t be surprised if some Saudi prince sponsored the study.
i dont believe it at all
As a licensed professional structural engineer with some knowledge of these matters, I consider this study nonsense. That is not to say that nothing is possible. However, let us continue with our normal lives, pray regularly to the Ribono Shel Olam, and ask him to protect us from any potential harm, including a highly unlikely New York earthquake.
Believe it! There was a book written by Chuck Scarborough about 20 years ago about an earthquake in NYC. There is a fault directly underneath that runs West to East down 125th Street.
Could an eartquake strike NYC? Yes. Is it likely to happen? Only Hashem knows. Still we must be prepared.
Yissi
This is old news. There was a made for TV movie about this once and that was before 9/11. Scary stuff indeed.
NYC had it’s last serious earthquake in 1884, when a magnitude 5.2 event off the shore of Far Rockaway, not from the well known 125th Street fault line. The few buildings that are sill standing that survived that quake are now quite old. No one knows how the post 1884 buildings, will do in the event of an earthquake. It is generally assumed that low rise wood frame houses have the best chance of surviving an earthquake unscathed. I’ve been hearing that we’re due for one for over 30 years, and so far nothing. But, then there’s nothing we can do about it anyway.