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What would happen if a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit New York?

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Since New York isn't located on or near an active fault zone, most of the buildings, including those big assed sky scrapers, weren't designed with earthquake resistance in mind, at least nothing approaching a magnitude 8.0. Think about what would happen when those fifty plus story buildings start toppling on top of, well, everything. read more

There are fault lines that lie underneath New York City, such as the 125th Street Fault. If one of these fault lines was to rupture, we could see earthquakes exceeding magnitude 6.0 in the city. For perspective, the Napa, California Earthquake of 2014, was also a magnitude 6.0. It caused over one billion dollars in damage. read more

A magnitude 7 quake at the 1884 historic site would cost over $198.6B. Half of the losses would happen in New York City. As many as 900 fires would break out simultaneously if a 2500-year event struck Manhattan. An M5 earthquake would generate over 1.6 million tons of debris - comparable to 9/11. read more

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