In a message dated 97-08-26 09:32:25 EDT, izzie@vcn.bc.ca writes:

<< If I remember right, (someone who knows, please correct me -- what am I
 thinking, of course someone will -- if I'm wrong) but I seem to remember
 reading that there is a fault line through NY's Central Park.  People
 don't think of earthquakes there because the area is more stable, ie
 less stress on the faults, then the West Coast.  It always seems to
 surprise people in the East when they have one, where as we here in the
 west sort of have the expectation of the "Big One" bred in our bones.  And
 I would rather be here, where the civil planners give it some thought than
 in the East where it gets lower priority.
  >>
Okay, this gets a little confusing. California Not only runs along a fault
line, but on a CONTINENTAL PLATE also. Out East coast plate is somewhere in
the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, some 5 or 4 miles down. So that is why
we're not as Earthquake prone as the other states on the west coast. HOWEVER!
There have been reports out in the midwestern state of Mass that people felt
MINOR shocks. It was a small Earthquake about 1.8 on the scaley thingy ^_^**