New York City isn’t immune to earthquakes; a couple of small tremors measuring about 2.5 on the Richter scale even struck back in 2001 and 2002.
But on August 10, 1884, a more powerful earthquake hit. Estimated from 4.9 to 5.5 in magnitude, the tremor made houses shake, chimneys fall, and residents wonder what the heck was going on, according to a New York Times article two days later.
The quake was subsequently thought to have been centered off Far Rockaway or Coney Island.
[This photo shows a sweet Coney Island beach day in the 1940s, site of a tremor a mere 60 years earlier.]
It wasn’t the first moderate quake, and it won’t be the last. In a 2008 Columbia University study, seismologists reported that the city is crisscrossed with several fault lines, one along 125th Street.
[Headline of The New York Times, August 12, 1884]
With that in mind, New Yorkers should expect a 5.0 or higher earthquake centered here every 100 years, the seismologists say.
Translation: We’re about 30 years overdue. Lucky for us the city adopted earthquake-resistant building codes in 1995.
Tags: 1884 New York City earthquake, Coney Island, Earthquake in New York, Far Rockaway, fault lines in New York City, natural disasters in New York City
Ephemeral New York 
January 20, 2010 at 1:19 pm |
Most of the city was built pre-code, and I shudder to think what a strong quake could do to our oldest brick-and-mortar neighborhoods.
January 20, 2010 at 5:37 pm |
the epicenter of one of the recent ones (2002?) was under 83rd and 2nd! i also clearly remember another one in the mid 1980s, which was centered in quebec but shook in manhattan. i’d never felt an earthquake before, but knew immediately what it was – odd.
January 20, 2010 at 5:41 pm |
We’ll call it the Yorkville Quake of 2002!
January 20, 2010 at 6:38 pm |
[…] August 10, 1884, an estimated 4.9 – 5.5 magnitude earthquake shook Coney Island [Ephemeral […]
January 20, 2010 at 7:56 pm |
this link says two 2001 quakes were under 102nd and park, and 55th and 8th: http://www.dukelabs.com/NYC%20Quake/NYCQuake.htm; but a map linked in that link (http://www.dukelabs.com/NYC%20Quake/Lobeck.jpg) shows the fault running SE through 83rd and 2nd about, and i know that i read that when it hit, but now i can’t find a reference online!!!
January 21, 2010 at 1:58 am |
The quake in the mid-80’s put a nice big crack in the spot where the ceiling and walls meet in my bedroom in the East village.
January 14, 2019 at 3:37 pm |
Jill, I am on 112 and Bway and I am currently having a crack that appeared after the 2011 tremor , which I slept through. I remember the 1987 tremor centered in Ardsley,NY . I had come home, was sitting on the bowl before a shower , and RRRRRRRM ….3 seconds and it was done. I turned on 1010WINS and they said “it appears there has been an earthquake in NYC”. WILD !!!
January 21, 2010 at 12:09 pm |
Have you ever heard of Tesla and the Earthquake machine? I will see if I can find more on this story but apparently he created a device that worked on the natural vibration of a structure, boosting each cycle. He left this device on in his laboratory- he actually said the thing was small enough to fit in his pocket- and went out. When he returned the whole building was shaking and he managed to smash the thing with a hammer before it brought down the whole building. His original lab was somewhere in New York if my memory is correct. This is the story anyway- couldn’t tell you whether there is any validity to it at all.
January 22, 2010 at 2:38 pm |
Check the song, “August 10th, 1884” from the Rock Opera Depossession:
[audio src="http://depossession.com/audio/1884.mp3" /]
January 22, 2010 at 5:10 pm |
When I got up in the morning after the quake in the 80’s, I remembered being being awakened in the middle of the night and sitting str8 up in bed but I thought it had been a dream. When I turned on the TV I was surprised to learn it had been an earthquake that woke me up.
February 15, 2010 at 11:27 pm |
i remember a tremor in the Hudson Heights section of Manhattan in 1998 i believe and i was wonderingg why my bed was shaking. it was a earthquake tremor. i think we should be all concerned. 30 years overdue? wow. lets get the hell outta manhattan
November 2, 2010 at 3:28 am |
This resource shows all of the historical earthquake data for New York. Check it out!
http://www.homefacts.com/earthquakes/New-York.html
June 24, 2011 at 8:48 am |
We New Yorker are so arrogant and take too much for granted. We can use a little something like a quake to humble us and be more appreciative.
June 20, 2013 at 7:00 am |
[…] the last major city quake happened in 1884 and was centered around Coney Island. “The New York City metro area is susceptible to an earthquake of at least a magnitude of 5.0 […]