Did You Feel the Earth Move in the Hudson Highlands?

  |  July 21, 2014
earthquake

Did anyone feel that earthquake in the Hudson Highlands a few weeks ago? If you didn’t, you’re certainly not alone. It was only a 2.5 magnitude, barely strong enough to shake the knick-knacks off your shelf, but it was an earthquake nonetheless. The quake hit at 10:46am on July 5 with the epicenter 13 miles southeast of Newburgh. Hardly noteworthy in and of itself; there have been plenty of quakes in the lower Hudson Valley ranging between a slight tremble 1.1 to a little more robust shakes with magnitudes of around 5 (compare that to the earthquake that essentially leveled Anchorage, AK in 1964, which was a 9.2. San Francisco’s great earthquake in 1906 was a 7.7). However, that hasn’t stopped fears sparking anew about the Indian Point nuclear power plant and the safety of nuclear power in general in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdown. And while many feel that smaller earthquakes are warnings that bigger quakes are on the way, at least one expert argued that this isn’t the case. According to USGS National Earthquake Information Center geophysicist Rafael Abreu in a recent article on CBS New York, the quake was “definitely not an indication that there is a larger earthquake coming or anything else.” What are your thoughts on nuclear power plants and earthquakes? Do you believe the fears are founded? Tell us in the comments.

 

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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