If you're scared of earthquakes, live in a place where there is cooled magma. Results from an airborne study of up to nine miles beneath the surface of the ground show that type of rock formation was more prevalent in the places that didn't feel the effects of the 2011 quake as much as others. Anji Shah, the lead researcher, explained: "If you look to the southwest [of the epicenter], you quickly run into a pluton (the solidified magma), so you have an interface of different rock types, which might make the energy a lot less efficient in that direction." Click over for a more detailed explanation of why the energy rippled up the East coast rather than down it.
· 2011 East Coast Earthquake Traced From Sky [HuffPo]