Axios

The East Coast's ancient rocks allowed the Friday morning earthquake to rattle an estimated 42 million people in several states, giving it a much wider reach than its West Coast cousins, geologists said.

Why it matters: If an earthquake of the same magnitude happened on the West Coast, it's likely that it wouldn't have been felt as far away, because seismic waves in the eastern half of North America behave differently than those out West.

Barring surprising changes, Americans should prepare for a potentially expensive, damaging — and life-threatening — Atlantic hurricane season.

Why it matters: Seasons that feature some of the current elements have been among the busiest on record, but none have seen this potent a mix.

A powerful, deadly storm that's dumped several inches of snow across New England and other parts of the U.S. Northeast disrupted travel and caused widespread outages into Friday morning.

The big picture: Well over a foot of snow has fallen in parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Nearly 290,000 customers had no power in Maine alone, with nearly 116,00 in the dark in neighboring N.H. on Friday morning.