User:NeonSpectre/sandbox

Faults in the Northeastern U.S. and Canada
Strongly damaging earthquakes are more common in California where they occur on average once every 2-3 years. Most intraplate earthquakes are not damaging but strong earthquakes can occur.

It is more difficult to study intraplate earthquakes in the Northeastern United States. The pattern of earthquakes in the Northeast is scattered. There are no active fault lines where earthquakes repeat along the same "line". More is known about the West Coast where there are more active fault lines and areas of sparse vegetation where visual evidence of earthquake history can be observed.

There were several strong earthquakes in New England in the 17th century. The 1638 New Hampshire earthquake may have been as strong as the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California. The 1663 Charlevoix earthquake in Quebec was close to the magnitude of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The 1755 Cape Ann earthquake caused damage in coastal Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake in Newfoundland was a 7.2 earthquake that caused a tsunami. It was felt in New York City over 1,000 miles away.

There is no scientifically proven method of predicting earthquakes. Calculating probabilities based on fault locations and seismic data is not the same as prediction. Alan Kafka, a seismologist who studies intraplate earthquakes in the Northeastern United States, has attempted to study the locations of past earthquakes to estimate earthquake risk of "unexpected earthquakes".

The largest known intraplate earthquake in the United States was the 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes where two earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 7 occurred on the same day. Since large quakes have occurred at intraplate faults in the past, New York seismologists have not ruled out the possibility of a large quake in the New York City area.

The earth's crust is cooler and denser in the northeast and mid-Atlantic region. Heat from the earth's core reaches the mantle and makes earthquakes more likely at plate boundaries where the crust is hotter and less dense. Technological advances allowed researchers to locate an unexpected localized hot spot in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. While unlikely to become a volcano anytime soon, the discovery of the hot spot has raised the possibility of new dynamic models of geological activity in a region that was considered stagnant.