NEW YORK EARTHQUAKE - HDTV 2008

TiTLE : New York Earthquake
DATE : 2008-12-04
RESOLUTiON : 624 x 352
LENGTH : 43:25
ViDEO : XviD 991 kbps
AUDiO : mp3 vbr 128 kbs
FRAMERATE : 29.97FPS
SOURCE : 1080i
SiZE : 350 mb

DESCRiPTiON : Seismologists and other scientists investigate the
possibility that a devastatingly powerful earthquake could strike
deep in the heart of New York City, and experts examine what could
happen to the city in the aftermath of such an event.

No this is not a SciFi Channel movie .

— An analysis of recent earthquake activity around New York City has found that many small faults that were believed to be inactive could contribute to a major, disastrous earthquake.

The study also finds that a line of seismic activity comes within two miles of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, about 25 miles north of New York City. Another fault line near the plant was already known, so the findings suggest Indian Point is at an intersection of faults.

The study’s authors, who work at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Observatory, acknowledge that the biggest earthquakes — in the 6 or 7 magnitude range — are rare in the New York City region. They say a quake of magnitude 7 probably comes about every 3,400 years.

The study, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, analyzed 383 known earthquakes over the past 330 years in or near New York City. The biggest were three that reached magnitude 5 in 1737, 1783 and 1884.

Data on earthquakes since the early 1970s, when Lamont deployed dozens of new detectors, enabled the authors to see patterns from smaller quakes, including the magnitude 4.1 quake that was centered on Ardsley, in Westchester County, in 1985.