Get the latest tech news

Why the East Coast Earthquake Covered So Much Ground


Friday morning's earthquake was felt from New York City all the way to Washington, DC. Blame ancient fault lines and bedrock for the jolt.

Though nowhere near the magnitude of the West Coast’s monster quakes, the seismic waves traveled hundreds of miles, jostling not just nearby New York City, but Philadelphia and Boston and Washington, DC. Its wide-ranging impact turns out to be not a quirk, but a byproduct of the East Coast’s unique geology of ancient fault lines and rock composition. Back in 2011, for instance, people felt the shock of a 5.8 quake in Virginia from up to 600 miles away, whereas a 6.8 a few years later in Napa, California—which produced twice as much energy— traveled less than half that distance.

Get the Android app

Or read this on Wired

Read more on:

Photo of Ground

Ground

Photo of East Coast

East Coast

Related news:

News photo

Tesla’s Shrinking China Market Share Compounds Global Woes

News photo

Baltimore Ship Accident Has East Coast Ports Scrambling to Absorb Cargo

News photo

Cerebras breaks ground on Condor Galaxy 3, an AI supercomputer that can hit 8 exaFLOPs