Recent earthquakes in northern New York
- Potsdam Coll. of the State Univ. of New York, NY (United States). Dept. of Geology
The Massena, New York area located along the St. Lawrence River in northern New York has been the site of significant earthquake activity including the largest earthquake in New York (m = 6.0) on September 5, 1944. Historic earthquake data indicates the Cornwall-Massena area is a region of relatively high seismic activity, and the earthquake activity has been persistent for over a 400 year period. During the past year eleven small earthquakes have been recorded by the Potsdam Seismic Network in northern New York. Four of these earthquakes had epicenters located in the Massena-Cornwall area. One epicenter was located along the Carthage-Colton Mylonite Zone and one epicenter was located n the epicentral region of the October 7, 1984 Goodnow earthquake. Five earthquakes had epicenters located in Ontario and Quebec. These earthquake epicenters lie in a belt of seismicity that extends north-westerly from the northern Adirondacks into the Canadian Shield of western Quebec. Several explanations that have been presented to explain these earthquakes are (1) mafic intrusions (2) unmapped northwest trending faults (3) extension of the New England seamount chain and (4) crustal fractures due to the area passing over a hotspot. Four earthquakes in the Massena area lie very near extensions of the Gloucester and Winchester Spring faults into New York and may be related to the faults. Focal mechanism solutions of two earthquakes indicate thrusting along NW striking fault planes. Another possibility is the earthquakes are related to the Carthage-Colton Mylonite Zone. One earthquake is within four kms of the CCMZ and if the zone is extended northward beneath the lower Paleozoics, it passes through the epicenters on the Cornwall-Massena area.
- OSTI ID:
- 5805929
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303211-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:2; Conference: 28. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) Northeastern Section meeting, Burlington, VT (United States), 22-24 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
EARTHQUAKES
EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE
EPICENTERS
NEW YORK
ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS
COMPILED DATA
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
ORIGIN
SEISMICITY
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
DATA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
INFORMATION
MOUNTAINS
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
SEISMIC EVENTS
USA
580000* - Geosciences