4.8 magnitude earthquake hits New York and New Jersey Friday morning, rare in the area. But we can’t say we weren’t warned. Scientists have been predicting that a “big event” might hit New York at some point. These predictions date back more than a century.
The illustration above appeared in the November 1924 issue of science and inventions Magazine. The magazine was founded by science fiction legend Hugo Gernsback, and these were very serious predictions about New York’s future. The drawings depict how Manhattan would collapse under its own weight in the event of an earthquake, all because of “caves or pockets” beneath the surface.
from 1924 article:
An earthquake more terrifying than the one that devastated Tokyo is predicted to hit New York City in the near future [sic] Last summer was produced today by Professor David Todd, professor of astronomy at Amherst College.
After a particularly deadly earthquake in Japan in the mid-1920s, many articles were published about earthquakes in urban areas. September 1, 1923. The event killed more than 140,000 people after tsunamis and fires ripped through Tokyo and Yokohama.
Incredibly, some people in the 1920s accused New technologies such as radio Used to cause earthquakes.But considering the ridiculous beliefs people have on social media 2024 is heremaybe we shouldn’t judge them too harshly.
The 1920s were the heyday of earthquake anxiety in New York, but the rest of the century also saw varying predictions of possible earthquakes in New York, all the way up to a 1995 article New York The magazine warns that big things could happen ahead. Click through the slideshow to see more examples from the past 100 years.