New York: Beware the Earthquake

I used to live near New York City. One day in 1965, the ground shuddered and my mother immediately told me, "That's an earthquake." Sure enough, it was, but the experts couldn't say much about it. Today we've learned much more, and East Coast seismologists talk about features like the Ramapo Seismic Zone and the 125th Street fault—names that may sound unsettling in this unexpected role. A new study in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America sums up the historical and geologic data and concludes that damaging earthquakes around New York City are more likely than we used to think. The press release for this paper quotes coauthor John Armbruster: "Today, with so many more buildings and people, a magnitude 5 centered below the city would be extremely attention-getting. We'd see billions in damage, with some brick buildings falling. People would probably be killed." One prime quake target: the Indian Point nuclear power complex in Peekskill.