No nukes on the Hudson

Who knew? New York City sits dead center atop an active earthquake zone. No, not as active as California’s infamous –– and hyperactive –– quake zone. Nonetheless, we have gotten our share of big quakes in the past 300 years.

That was the major finding of a 2008 study on earthquakes in the New York metropolitan area conducted by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

A press release on the study issued by Columbia’s Earth Institute reads in part, “A study by a group of prominent seismologists suggests that a pattern of subtle but active faults makes the risk of earthquakes to the New York City area substantially greater than formerly believed.”

According to the study, the Indian Point nuclear power plant, 24 miles north of New York City on the Hudson River, is located atop the intersection of two active, previously unidentified seismic zones.

The study, which was published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, noted that three earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 5.0 on the Richter scale struck the New York City area in 1737, 1787 and 1884. They did not, however, cause substantial damage because back then there weren’t the tall buildings that we have today, nor, obviously, were there any nuclear reactors to worry about.

The metropolitan area is hit by an earthquake about every hundred years, meaning we’re overdue for one, according to Dr. Lynn Sykes, a Columbia professor of earth and environmental sciences and the study’s lead author.

Great.

I’ve watched in horror as Japan has been turned upside down first by a massive earthquake, then by a tsunami of biblical proportions, and finally a radiation crisis after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was severely damaged in the quake and was struck by a series of hydrogen explosions. Power to the plant was cut off.

Radiation was released, and now it’s turning up in the air, water and food supply across Japan.