Earthquakes don’t occur everywhere. They occur along the boundaries of the earth’s tectonic plates, along either known active faults or dormant faults. The East Coast is crisscrossed with ancient faults, including the Ramapo Fault that runs through southeastern New York to eastern Pennsylvania.

Tolulope Olugboji, assistant professor of earth science at the University of Rochester, talked to us this summer about the reasons the Rochester area experiences quakes. Sometimes, the pathway for seismic activity is along smaller, unmapped faults that are part of a complex network branching from the Ramapo Fault.

What causes an earthquake in western New York?

When you have a dormant fault system in a region like the East Coast, modern stressors can still trigger tremors and quakes. But what

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