Paramedicpete - That's my understanding too. Long Island is the moraine of iceage glaciers. In fact, it's the moraine of a glacier that advanced, retreated, and then advanced again, though not as far, hence the north and south forks of the island as you head out east.

KG2V - When talking about landfill, don't forget Battery Park City. If I'm not mistaken, the whole area was reclaimed from the Hudson with the debris from excavating the "bathtub" under the original Word Trade Center towers.

I, too, remember a handfull of earthquakes in NYC over the years. I even felt the M3.1 one that a few people have talked about. As long as they stay small, I'm OK with it. The 125th street fault in Manhattan is actually clearly visable on the west side as the land falls away from Morningside Heights and then rises again into West Harlem, necessitating the #1 Subway train to go above ground for about 3/4 of a mile.

I think, in the end, a major earthquake in NYC is one of the kind of things that I can say, "if I survive the initial impact, my preps will help me make it through the aftermath. If I don't survive the initial impact, it was probably because a building fell on or around me, and there's not much that can be done to prepare for that." It's not like a hurricane where we'd get some warning.

Now, if you survive the quake, and see New York Harbor receeding through the narrows, how do you decide which skyscraper is still sound enough to climb to get out of the way of the tsunami? ;^)