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The Ramapo Fault System
The Ramapo Fault System stretches from eastern Pennsylvania to southeastern New York. Approximately 200 million years ago when the Atlantic Ocean opened up between North America and Africa, and the Appalachian mountain chain formed, , the Ramapo Fault System created the boarders between area basins, including around the Newark Basin. Today the Ramapo Fault System is relatively inactive. Although significant seismic events are rare, seismologists caution that their patterns are difficult to predict, and the Ramapo Fault System might once again become active.
The Ramapo System's Fault Line
On land, the Ramapo Fault Line runs for approximately 70 miles, across three states --- Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York --- and is visible above ground. It runs past the East Coast and into the Atlantic Ocean, where it ends in the underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a mountain range that is considered seismically active. Seismologists estimate the Earth's crust is 20 to 25 miles deep, and they estimate that the Ramapo Fault Line cuts approximately 9 miles into the crust. Unlike the San Andreas Fault, the Ramapo Fault Line does not occur at a plate boundary --- the entire Ramapo Fault Line runs across the North American plate.
Active Faults
In the Northeastern United States, earthquakes usually travel along the fault lines from eastern Pennsylvania across New Jersey and into the Hudson Highlands of New York. When an earthquake occurs, seismologists can trace the event back to its epicenter and then to an active fault. These active faults are auxiliary faults of the Ramapo Fault System, and they usually cut East-West across the Ramapo Fault Line. Their formation likely reflects changes in the pressures on the Earth's crust since the Fault System was formed. One source of geologically modern pressure, and the formation of modern faults, is the Atlantic Ocean pushing westward on the North American Plate.
Intersection of the Active Faults and the Ramapo Fault System
The active faults are often found to be very close to the Ramapo Fault System -- for example, the seismologists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University have found that the recent earthquakes near Milford, New Jersey, spring from active faults that are less than one kilometer from a Ramapo Fault System fault line. If too much modern pressure on the Earth's crust results in active faults, and those faults begin to create substantial seismic activity, they could trigger activity in the ancient Ramapo Fault System, which could be catastrophic for the areas the Ramapo Fault System crosses --- including Pennsylvania.