I had never felt an earthquake until this year, and since then, I’ve felt three. Is there an increase in earthquakes in New York City? How and why have they become so frequent?
An earthquake is caused by the sudden movement of Earth’s crust. Tectonic plates are constantly shifting, but they sometimes get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress at these edges overcomes the friction holding them in place, the plates suddenly move. This releases energy that travels through the Earth’s crust, causing the shaking sensation.
Earthquakes are measured by two factors: magnitude and intensity. Magnitude is the total energy the earthquake releases. It’s measured on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 representing the most powerful earthquakes. Intensity measures how strong the shaking feels at a specific location. It’s measured using Roman numerals from I to XII (1 to 12), with I meaning the earthquake wasn’t felt and XII meaning there was extreme shaking.
Depending on how close you are to the shifting tectonic plates, this shaking can cause serious damage to towns and cities. So far, the earthquakes we’ve felt in New York City haven’t been strong enough to cause major harm, but at higher magnitudes, they can be deadly. An earthquake itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, but how it affects manmade structures is. People inside collapsing buildings or struck by debris can be seriously injured or killed. In some cases, earthquakes can knock down power lines, start fires, or even cause dam walls to collapse, leading to flooding.
This year, the earthquakes felt in New York City have ranged in magnitude from 1.6 to 3.0. While not considered large, they’ve still been noticeable to some. Yanling Li (V) said, “It’s really strange. Growing up in New York City, I don’t recall experiencing any earthquakes, even if it was of low magnitude. I didn’t feel the one last week, but I remember there was a more severe one last April. The glass of water on my table was visibly shaking.” For her, like many longtime New Yorkers, earthquakes are something she’s only recently started to notice. So, what’s causing these frequent earthquakes?
According to the USGS (United States Geological Survey), the increasing number of recorded earthquakes doesn’t necessarily mean that more earthquakes are happening. Instead, it’s due to advancements in technology that allow us to detect them more accurately.
The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) detects about 20,000 earthquakes around the world each year, which is around 55 per day. Many of these are so small that people can’t feel them, but they’re still measured by technology. In places like New York, people may experience earthquakes without even realizing it because they tend to be low in magnitude and cause minimal shaking. For example, during a recent earthquake on August 2nd, some residents reported a brief shake, myself included, while others, like Li, didn’t notice anything at all.
Earthquakes are constantly happening, but we only feel some of them. Even then, individual experiences can vary widely depending on where you are, the type of building you’re in, or even what you’re doing at the time. So, have there been more earthquakes recently? Probably not. But with better technology, we’re now picking up even the tiniest tremors, ones that would’ve gone completely unnoticed years ago. Now, if you feel a small shake, you’ll probably see it pop up on the news as a “small earthquake.” But before all this tech, that same shake might’ve just felt like a truck passing by… or maybe thunder.
