Why do we have so many earthquakes here & not in New York?

Answer 1

Earthquakes happen when geologic faults suddenly slip. The NY area has fewer fault lines so fewer earthquakes than many other places. A fault is a crack or division between two plates or sheets of the earth's subsurface. These plates always move a little but when they jounce you get an earthquake.

ehttp://arthquakes.usgs.gov/learing is the US Geologic Survey site that will give you a lot more infop about earthquakes including their causes, predicting a quake, etc.

Answer 2

I have to assume you are in the west coast of the USA....Earthquakes are caused by plate movement w/ respect to each other ... the North American plate and the Pacific plate boundary runs approximately just under the coast of California..... this is an active boundary with oblique subduction of the Pacific plate under the American plate in a very oblique angle toward the North east ... with the Pacific plate effective ly moving north w/ respect to the American plate ... this movement causes earth quakes... in California they are essentially along the San Andreas fault or a related sub fault.....

The East coast is a pull apart/extensional coast with a spreading center under the Mid Atlantic Ridge and not much tectonic activity....

however the Appalachian Mtns which parallel the East coast are an ancient subduction zone and on occasion there is some movement along the old fault boundaries ...this has caused a few quakes in recent history .... the quakes tend to be of much less intensity and of much less frequency that the west coat quakes ... resulting in only minimal damage ....

Answer 3

The earth is made up of several plates that are in constant motion. California is on the edge of a plate known as the Pacific Rim Plate. This plate is slowly inching north against the North American Plate.

There is not much seismic activity in New York because the plate it sits on is relatively stable.

Take a look at the website below.

Answer 4

Well, if "here" is California, because you sit on top of a subduction and slip zone where the earth is moving sideways and overlapping while New York does not. On the other hand, perhaps all those NY's yelling at each other relieves the strain and the laid back CA style lets it build up:-)

Answer 5

where is "here"?