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5.8 Earthquake Hits East Coast of the US
At 1:51 p.m. EDT a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit Virginia (map of reported tremors). Reports indicate it was felt along most of the east coast (my monitor and floor definitely wobbled a bit down here in Raleigh NC) with reported evacuations of government buildings at least in DC. QuantumPion noted that the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station is located only a few miles from the epicenter, and the NRC has confirmed the plant automatically shut down with no apparent damage. For folks who like that sort of thing, there is a hashtag on Twitter, and the WSJ has a page with live updates on the situation.
Felt it here, third floor of a building. Nothing more here than a gentle sway back and forth 3-4 times.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
How did this make Slashdot already? Nothing makes this site for weeks.
I felt it in Southern New Jersey. Everyone was dumb founded for a little while - "Whose shaking the cubicle wall?" Then everyone ended up outside with no cell service. After a few minutes we all hit the web and that was also saturated. Natural disaster practice test.
Marques Johansson
I work 3rd shift & was woken up with stuff falling from the shelves. First earthquake I actually felt.
I was sitting at my desk and everything swayed a little bit...
This one was felt by quite a few people...
desk started moving under my feet. not the first time so no big deal
all the chicks that work in the building here that is full of fashion and modeling companies got scared and evacuated right away
see subject
I felt something over here in Chicago. Didn't know if it was an earthquake though.
I was wondering why my drink was moving left too right. Can anyone here who knows geology explain their reason for thinking that there may be another quake or not another quake? I am talking about a timeframe of today. NYC, shaking here felt like when you are about to faint and dizzy, a slight nudging left to right.
Pretty serious: http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
Felt it here in Vermont, got our building swaying.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Earthquakes in the eastern US are felt over a much wider area than those in the western US. It's one big plate, so an earthquake anywhere is felt all across it. Like hitting a pipe with a hammer.
In the west the plates are broken up by many faults, which absorb the energy release.
Best Slashdot Co
6th floor of a hospital here in Pittsburgh- my chair rocked and almost fell over.
The event webpage: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/usc0005ild.php
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
Definitely felt in in Raleigh - of course, I assumed my neighbor's washer was just unbalanced and shaking the adjoining wall.
The whole house shook for a good minute or more. Now I don't have to wonder what an earthquake feels like.
Where I am now, the cell and land lines phones are out, but I still have cable Internet access - thank you Comcast (oh the irony)
BTW Mineral is not Northern VA
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Felt it in downtown Toronto as well. Also, they upgraded it to a 5.9.
It's a pretty big deal for a place as tectonically stable (normally) as the mid-Atlantic region. Shook us pretty well here in Annapolis. Also caused evacs from the Capitol; even God wants them to stop spending so much money.
Felt in Columbus, OH
Congrats to the East Coast for feeling an earthquake. With love from the West Coast.
Stuff that matters? At least add something like: the power of the earthquake was 1000 times weaker than the one hitting Fukushima.
I think, therefore you are.
No tremors here, I just wanted to be cool and report something too...
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
More info: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/at00lqe6x3.php
Got reports from a friend that works at Penn State that his building was shaking before the news reports started popping up.
My wife called from her work to say that she felt her desk moving back and forth, and she wondered whether she had felt an earthquake.
How's Facebook's stock handling this? The quake was just north north east of FarmVille. Productivity everywhere just increased.
Pffffttttt.. 5.8? that's not even worth crawling out of bed for. /so-cal
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
What to Do During an Earthquake
What to Do After an Earthquake
Get cover, stay there, and don't go outside.
Was someone doing some fracking that we don't know about?
g=
I didn't think there were any fault line anywhere near Washington DC...so how could this Earthquake happen? Hmm...kind of coincidental how on Monday night there was a 5.3 magnitude earthquake that struck in southeast Colorado...
Also, why on Earth would they evacuate the Pentagon AFTER the earthquake? Does that make any sense at all?
"Know but never fear the consequences of your actions."
Scared the hell out of me. Over here in Greensboro NC, it wasn't bad or anything but "Is there an animal under my seat?! WTF?!" it's the unexplained that freaks you out... an earthquake in the East? No way... Laf.
On the top floor of a three story building, felt a pretty good wobble.
I guess being from California makes you not understand why a 5.8 earthquake would make the front page of slashdot...
So you don't get earthquakes on the east coast?
Also felt it here in Raleigh @RDU - 2nd floor - Roughly 5-6 seconds a couple of small bursts?
Very light but definitely felt the tremor.
Felt it in Grand Rapids, MI... only vibrated for a few seconds...
i called our director of IT who was a mile away in another building and he said i was crazy. so i hit up twitter and everyone is saying how NYC just had an earthquake. didn't even bother to check the news since twitter is as close to real time as you can get
My office building is a single story cubicle farm. We felt two waves here of steady shaking. 37 miles away my fiance felt our apartment building swaying as well. No damage here that I'm aware of but some people are going home anyway.
We felt it in Atlanta. Our 3 story building shook.
Felt it here... People were evacuating building, businesses are closing down, and gov workers are going home..... All over the little shake we felt. Oh and as I was writing this just heard they were evacuating our capitol.
They just upgraded it to 5.9. Felt it here on the 39th floor of my company's building. At first I thougth I was having a panic attack or something, then I realized everyone else was trying to figure out what was going on (the building is tall enough to catch wind sometimes, so it isn't abnormal to feel a brief shake). We ran to the window (engineers know better than to hide in doorways!) and verified that the water in the pool on top of the building next door was shimmying, indicating some definite motion was going on. Now I just feel a little queasy. Weird experience.
Cracked brick buildings and knocked over bookshelves here in Charlottesville, VA. Cell service is out.
A 5.8 here =/= 5.8 in Calif or Japan. The geology is different.
Felt in Toronto too.
I live in northern NJ and didn't even know there was a quake until I saw it on the web. As a geology teacher I'm really disappointed because I've never actually experienced an earthquake directly. Maybe I'll get lucky and there'll be some strong aftershocks. That would rock!
I've finally lived the dream of getting to watch my furniture dance without the benefit of alcohol. I'm about an hour's drive from the epicenter.
Felt here in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Gentle shaking of desk.
I walked into the office after coming back from lunch and everyone was all excited about some earthquake or some such nonsense. I was driving and didn't feel a thing. The roads here are terrible though, but sure explains why everyone was loitering around outside buildings down the main drag in town.
There was one last night in CO. Why is this news for nerds?
Here's the link to usgs.
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
Felt it up, here...went outside to bird dog the girls streaming out of the building and lost cell access for a few minutes..
Felt it here as well
Felt it here at work. We're on the third floor of an old brick factory building. Certainly heard a few items upstairs hit the floor. Everyone went outside and proceeded to not have cell service. Text was fine though.
The Digital Sorceress
Felt it in Columbus OH as well. Pretty far away
Note that my workstation is locked into NTP (drift of 5.0ms) but in any case I'd expect that Google's servers are too.
Been there, done that, paid for the T-shirt
and didn't get it
5.9's a pretty big earthquake for the East Coast, no? I'm surprised there wasn't more damage. Anyone know what magnitude the buildings are built to withstand? (As far as cell/internet/land lines being down, that happens on the West Coast too, but it's just because everyone's trying to use them at the same time.)
The USGS site has it occurring a few minutes earlier - 1:51pm - while here we say 1:58pm. Not sure where the slashdot article gets its time from, or what the discrepancy comes from...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
18th floor of an office building, a bunch of the people noticed it, and a whole lot didn't. Guess it depends on what you're doing. I blame my not noticing on being a guy and therefore a poor multitasker :D
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
5.8 isnt tiny, and this one was felt over a rather large area.
The epicenter of the earthquake was apparently just a few miles away from North Anna Nuclear Power Plant.
We just received notice that the Pentagon is being evacuated, as a precaution.
"Ahh! I see you're in that indeterminate Schrodinger state where - oh, uh
Felt the desk moving, thought it was a truck outside again. When it didn't stop after a second we were all looking around puzzled. Hoping everything at home is okay.
Last night there was a 5.3 in Colorado, where the only only earthquakes in the last 100 years were both 5.x size and were later determined to be man made via drilling or explosives. Same thing today. 5.3 in CO and then a 5.8 in VA. VA is not known for natural seismic activity but it is known for being the center of the federal government. Will researchers be able to determine if it was natural or if it was the result of some drilling/construction deep under DC?
Not many clouds in the sky - no tornado... only thing left that's not unnatural is earthquake. It was neat, but slightly scary too.
We didn't feel nothing down here...
Just a gentle rumble for 20 seconds or so.
Apparently there was also a quake in Colorado...
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/23/colorado.quake/
Or not
I just flew in to Detroit on business, so I didn't feel it, but you can see it pretty clearly impacted the area near downtown. It shook a few houses to the ground, it left immense cracks in the streets, and I can already see looting going on.
God, some areas look like a third-world country now! I hope the other places handled it better.
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
And wants us to leave.
Really, I'm near DC and it wasn't that big a deal. People running into the streets were in greater danger of being hit by cars than by having their building fall down. I saw a group of people standing BETWEEN two buildings, both of which had large panes of glass that, if they fell, could ruin someone's day.
Two 5.0+ earthquakes in the Continental US in less than a day! 2012 has begun early!! /sarcasm
It is interesting though, I wonder how often this kind of thing has happened in the past, two different fault lines tripping the same day with 5.0+ quakes. For those interested below is a link to the USGS's earthquake monitoring website. Gives a nice graphical representation of the seismic activity in the last week. The west coast seems to have continuous minor tremors.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/
...from everyone calling their friends and trying to update facebook...
0 damage would be highly improbable
83% likelihood of $1 million to $1 billion in damage
22% likelihood it killed someone
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/pager/events/us/c0005ild/index.html
I felt it in Baltimore. I could hear the glassware in the lab shaking. At first I thought it was from a nearby construction site.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.
We have an office 2 miles for Indian Point in Peekskill, NY. Our building rattled slightly for about 2 minutes....
Heard kids running around upstairs, then started hearing/feeling shaking. Chandelier started swinging slightly. Probably 30-45 seconds. My first earthquake, but kept calm, surprisingly.
If you can read this, it means that I bothered to log in.
Felt it here in Toronto on the 32nd floor - building started swaying a fair bit. Thought I had too much blood in my alcohol system for a second there...
God wants them to tax the rich (never God's favorite folks) and spend more money on poor people so they stop blaming God for how fucked up their lives are under the plutocracy.
He lived through the Great Depression and was cautious about a lot of things. He carried quake insurance on our house in Virginia--it was very cheap and he knew that quakes can still happen anywhere.
The first quake I ever felt was on the 5th floor of a building in DC in 2003. It was a gentle nudge and I noted that it felt like somebody dropped a box of copy paper; but there was no sound. I didn't realize it was a quake until I got in the car and turned on the radio. That quake was a 4.5, and remember the scale is logarithmic.
As others will no doubt point out, quakes in the eastern US are not like Pacific quakes. There are large areas of relatively stable rock that transmit the shaking a much further distance. This quake is also very shallow.
Since I've moved to California the biggest quake I've felt has been 5.3, Alum Rock. That was just a bit more scary than a recent 3.4 in Pacifica. Your distance from the epicenter, and what you're resting on makes a world of difference. I'm less than 10 miles from Pacifica; but 30 miles from San Jose.
I am in Richmond, Va and my building just shook for about 5 minutes. My parents are further north in Fredericksburg and said their house was swaying enough to knock things off the walls... Overall, not that big of a deal...no worse than a low flying jet...
Felt it here too. Fentle, heard air conditioning ducts crackling once/twice.
I'm in a holding pattern above the airport in Philadelphia because all of the major airports up and down this coast have been "briefly" shut down for runway inspections. I hope the delay is briefer than the duration of my fuel reserve.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Felt it on the third floor of my building in Rockville, MD. Shook the floor upwards a bit, figured I'm better at work than at home -- that's the 16th floor.
That was something.
~EEE~
Felt it here, third floor of a building. Nothing more here than a gentle sway back and forth 3-4 times.
Felt it here, third floor of a building. Nothing more here than a gentle sway back and forth 3-4 times.
Kris from New jesrey
I was laying on bed watching TV at 1.45 PM today.At 1.50 I fely and heard a strange sound appearing on my bed below.Later it intensified and felt for more than a two second.It was virtually shaking and I was scared.It cooled down.I tried to reach 911 but the line was already engaged.I could finally reach and the Police enquired if everything was okay.I said it was okay.This was the first time in my life to have experienced the earth quake in this part of the world!
I think this is the fastest an event has ever made it to Slashdot.
Felt in here in Maine. My house was moving with the beat on the radio and I was like WTF??? Then I realized.
Felt it too...
Felt it for a good 7-10 seconds in the Chesapeake Bay area.
Our office is a small building on a concrete slab. We NEVER feel much in the way of movement. When this thing hit, I ran outside. The water storage reservoirs were making ominous oil-canning sounds on an industrial scale. Significant rumbling with some side to side movement.
Reminder for those of you in the East Coast: Something made those Appalachian mountains. It may not be as active as the West coast, but it would be wise not to ignore it.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
Felt it here too... seems a bit far away, but perhaps it's because I'm in a hi-rise. Building swayed for several seconds, long enough for everyone here to wander out of their cubes asking if anyone else felt it.
USGS earthquake was a 5.8 about 3.7 miles down.
S & P downgraded it to 4.5.
God did it.
Definitely felt the whole building moving. Very new feeling for me.
I'm sure it's no biggie for West Coast folks, but that's the first time I felt the actual ground under me move.
Transistors and Beer!!
How did this make Slashdot already? Nothing makes this site for weeks.
http://xkcd.com/723/ :P
That's how
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
My desk started shaking around. I was more confused than anything else. My immediate impression was of some big truck passing outside, but I'm in a building far too large to be affected by that, so I finally came to the conclusion that it must've been an earthquake. Twitter confirmed the suspicion...
Apparently it was felt all the way up the east coast. Pretty intense, by far the largest earthquake ever recorded in the area according to the USGS. The talking head on the news suggested that because this area is so geologically inactive, the crust is very cold and "bell-like" so even minor quakes tend to travel, in a way that a more plastic crust would not facilitate.
No damage here, nor injuries, but everyone felt it. My university issued a public safety alert.
Very strange.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
*yawn* what? The east coast had an earthquake? They do get them. The history or science channel had a show about it. I think the most frightening thing is that they believe there is a huge san andreas type fault like in the Ohio valley or the Mississippi river or something.....I'll have to find the info.
I find it funny watching all the east coast people all worried. Eh, we California people are like chill about it. Call us when you have a 6 or more quake
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0005ild.html
No injuries? No buildings damaged? Wait til they get a load of me.
- Hurricane Irene
Oh no, 22% chance somebody died? We need Congress to BAN EARTHQUAKES! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
I felt a couple wobbles. Everyone was going out into the street to see what was going on. I don't know if they fuckin' expected the Red Army to be going down the street or a goddamned Gundam to be going rooftop-to-rooftop... it was nothin' here in Jersey.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
http://images.wikia.com/villains/images/3/36/427px-PICT0023.jpg
Crumbling burned out buildings. People with vacant stares wandering the streets begging for food, money, medicine, shelter. Vast areas of the city look like a war zone.
Oh wait, that is normal. Carry on.
Our building shook a bit at first. Enough for me to look out the window for a big truck. Then it shook harder. That one was enough to knock some books off the shelf and get everyone to evacuate.
Everyone picked up their cell phones at the same time and overloaded all the networks. Only Sprint worked. They must have so few customers left it doesn't matter. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon were all useless. That includes forcing the phones to use 2G only.
I think I need to re-new my Ham license, just in case.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
And according to USGS it was also 0.6 miles deep, with a vertical uncertainty of plus or minus 4.6 miles. Gotta watch out for those mid-air earthquakes! They're sneaky!
From USGS
Magnitude 5.9
Date-Time
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 17:51:03 UTC
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 01:51:03 PM at epicenter
Location 37.975ÂN, 77.969ÂW
Depth 1 km (~0.6 mile) (poorly constrained)
Region VIRGINIA
Distances
6 km (4 miles) SSE (152Â) from Louisa, VA
6 km (4 miles) SW (236Â) from Mineral, VA
26 km (16 miles) SE (133Â) from Gordonsville, VA
32 km (20 miles) E (79Â) from Lake Monticello, VA
66 km (41 miles) NW (318Â) from Richmond, VA
134 km (83 miles) SW (219Â) from Washington, DC
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 10.9 km (6.8 miles); depth +/- 7.4 km (4.6 miles)
Parameters NST=390, Nph=390, Dmin=57.9 km, Rmss=1.17 sec, Gp= 47Â,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I'm in Ottawa, and about half of my workplace noticed it. I didn't.
My coworkers and I felt it in a concrete-floor metal factory building - just a few light shakes but enough to get people out of the building to see what was going on.
Anyone have a map of past quakes in this region? Its difficult to judge how unusual this even is. Anecdotally, it seems that such events are more rare on the east coast than out west. Californians probably wouldn't get out of bed for a 5.8.
And what sort of seismograph coverage does the east coast have? Its pretty good on the west coast, what with all the faults, volcanoes and whatnot.
Have gnu, will travel.
This should put some pressure on New Madrid. Nothing says earthquake safety like thousands of 100 year old brick buildings scattered across the midwest.
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
*Yawn* Here in So Cal we don't even get out of bed for a 5.8.
OK, that's done.
My building in DC was evacuated after this. It was actually powerful enough to knock a TV off the all and a few plant pots onto the ground. To be honest, when it struck I couldn't help but think terrorist attack before earthquake crossed my mind.
I live in Richmond, but all of the reports are related to the pussies in Boston, New York, and Washington DC. I guess there's just not enough "pearl clutching" going on down here.
FYI - I grew up in NoVA and have lived here all of my life and have never felt (or noticed) an earthquake before, so it was a neat experience. Bring on that bitch Irene!
If that were true...why would he strike when Congress is in recess and the President's on vacation?
:(){
Kris from New jesrey I was laying on bed watching TV at 1.45 PM today.At 1.50 I fely and heard a strange sound appearing on my bed below.Later it intensified and felt for more than a two second.It was virtually shaking and I was scared.It cooled down.I tried to reach 911 but the line was already engaged.I could finally reach and the Police enquired if everything was okay.I said it was okay.This was the first time in my life to have experienced the earth quake in this part of the world!
Why would you call 911? Especially since everything was OK? It's more rhetorical since this is an AC but this is sometimes why the lines get tied up in an emergency, clueless people jamming the emergency lines for no reason.
I don't know if my coworkers are a bunch of liars or not, but they claim to have felt an Earthquake around 1:50pm.
Personally, I didn't feel a thing.
However, our company sent an email to all employees in our building stating that there were reports of slight building movements throughout the entire complex, likely due to this Earthquake.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
"According to Associated Press, it 'was felt as far north as Rhode Island, New York City and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where President Barack Obama was dancing.'."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Anna_Nuclear_Generating_Station
slashdot was the one website I was able to access on 9/11/2001 while everyone else's tubes were clogged. Say what you will about the articles or the commentary or the curious sometime lack of editing prowess, but at least the dudes who run this joint have their shit together enough to keep it online when most others freeze up.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Between this and the impending hurricane I'm concerned my Touchpad may be delivered a day or two late.
Lets hope this wasn't some evil mastermind calling the US politician's bluff about some world extortion plan.
A 5.9 earthquake is nothing to scoff at, but the media is already seriously blowing this out of proportion.
I've been in two comparably strong earthquake in Asia. Everyone looks at each other for a second, the shaking gets more violent and we all bolt for the doors going outside. The ground stops moving, but stuff like lightpoles keep swaying for a bit longer. Fairly quickly everyone is assured that it's not a big one and everyone goes back to their normal routine. Anyone who was stuck inside doesn't even bother going outside.
It's comical the way people in DC are streaming into the streets. Don't panic!
Shouldn't you be flying the plane rather than posting on Slashdot? Or does Kareem have that covered? :)
Oh please... I live in Indonesia. A 5.9 earthquake barely even makes the news. A 5.9 is like, "Uhhh, hrmm, something feels strange, am I feeling a bit dizzy? Oh no, it's just a small earthquake."
Seriously though, the depth of the earthquake makes a big difference and this one seemed to be shallow, so I can imagine most people clearly felt it. However, the shake map looks pretty tame. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/global/shake/c0005ild/
You sure it's not a difference in building methods/materials that would cause greater damage on the east coast than on the west coast from an equally-powerful quake?
If it was felt from "VA to MA" wouldn't that put the epicenter around NYC? I would expect you to find reports from somewhere more like GA or such to MA....or was this a unidirectional quake that only sent waves north?
oh and yes.... was definitely felt in Boston. Actually, I think this is the first quake that I ever noticed and was able to attribute to being as such. If I have ever felt any others, it was indistinguishable from the washing machine being loaded slightly badly.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Far too many builders do so-so to piss poor construction. Now that ppl are realizing that they can be hit with a much larger quake, they will want to change their tunes. KB homes, Richmond, etc. All crap.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
It's both. There are no earthquake codes here for one. Second, earthquakes travel farther from the epicenter due to bedrock type and lack of fault lines.
Why would you call 911? Especially since everything was OK? It's more rhetorical since this is an AC but this is sometimes why the lines get tied up in an emergency, clueless people jamming the emergency lines for no reason.
And not just to call 911. It is not uncommon in the afternoon before expected hurricane landfall for cell phones to not be able to place calls, as so many people are tying up the lines calling everybody they can think of, just to chat about eachother's hurricane preps. Everybody so quick to jump online and check the news sites, change their status, etc. from their mobile device, I'm surprised any calls to 911 even get through.
Felt it bad here, I work in a 50-year-old building. No way this place stays intact if a sustained quake hits.
It was a shot across the bow ;)
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
We felt it here in Maine. I looked at the USGS site and didn't see anything in our area, so I discounted it. Now I realize I was feeling it from VA!
Felt it in Asheville, NC. About 20 seconds of slight shaking. No big deal, but still weird if you've never felt a quake before.
In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of radical evidence I must be classed as an Atheist.
My east coast friends always made fun of us California for shutting down our roads and schools for an inch of snow. Guess the shoe is on the other foot now? :p
Lanham, MD. The floor swayed, didn't hear anything. A few ceiling tiles fell.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
not true.. 5.8 = 5.8
even though geology is different - for the area's the 5.8 is the measured amplitude of the strongest seismic wave.
USGS is pointing this one as a 5.9 at a depth of 1km.. luckily it i was in the middle of nowhere - had it been centered on a city on the eastern seaboard it this could have been a very bad earthquake.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/37.39.-79.-77_eqs.php
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
I would just like to report that the earthquake was not felt in Wisconsin. Based on what everybody is posting, it looks like it would be easier to say where it was not felt. So, Wisconsin...clear.
Estimated loss of productivity: negative $235,000,000
I work a bit south of Baltimore. We felt it here for about 30 seconds. Of course my office is next to shipping and I thought maybe they'd finally lost it and knocked all the shelves over in an attempt to crush me finally. But nope.. earth quake. They've evacuated a number of office buildings in downtown Baltimore from what my wife is saying (she was sent home). Her brother said he felt it as far as Ft. Wayne IN as well.
I don't care what you say, all I need is my Wumpabet soup.
About 70 miles from the epicenter here in Warrenton, VA. Few pictures moved on the walls, few things thrown off some shelves but, nothing serious. My local community college took a bit of damage, and is currently closed "until further notice". Maybe the world is coming to an end...
And when someone calls 911, they HAVE to dispatch someone out to the location even if the caller said everything is ok. I have a sister that worked as a 911 dispatcher for several years and they had to do this many times.
Now?
Here in central pa (huntingdon and Alexandria) its as if you only noticed it indoors. My father-in-law said the shelves at his work vibrated, and the sister-in-law came out and asked if I felt anything (digging a support pole for a deck extension at their place)... I said no and both her and her mom said they did inside and the neighbor did too... weird as I was on the ground digging with a crazy small shovel due to it being a tight spot.. felt nothing)
In Waltham (15 miles West of Boston) ... felt nothing on the 3rd floor of our office building... but I've had about 18 cups of coffee by 2PM on a typical day, so it would probably take an 8.0 before I'd notice anything...
http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation
I understand the natural instinct for Californians to be dismissive, but this was the largest quake in the recorded history of Virginia, and the strongest on the east coast in over 100 years. The media is over-hyping it for sure, but it is historically and scientifically significant. Also, keep in mind that buildings on the east coast are not designed to withstand seismic events to the same extent as those in California, and are on the whole MUCH older than west coast buildings.
Good Virginia Earthquake Information
Mod points if I had them...very well put.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
Albany, NY. Felt it lightly; saw some water moving in a bottle, nothing else. Odd thing is, there was a 2.2 in Albany County at 6:35 this morning, and I didn't feel it at all. Either way, this is obviously an indication of the end of the world and we should all panic.
Good Information on history and science of earthquakes in Virginia
I found interesting that the chances of a quake in excess of 4.75 magnitude in Virginia over 100 years are 10-20%. This quake was over ten times as powerful at a 5.9.
A few days ago it was Colorado, now Virginia. Even the earthquakes are leaving California for more fertile ground. Pretty soon there will be nothing but terremotos and tsunamis out here.
Wimps. Same magnitude here last year, didn't really care. Get these all the time here. Ignored it went back to sleep.
Build your houses from real materials (not just wood slapped together) and you won't be bothered by tremors like these.
My desk is connected to the wall, and started shaking. Being as I'm technically in the basement though, there wasn't any actual swaying (no red stapler jokes now!)
At first I thought maybe two coworkers were going at it like Rhodesian mud bunnies in the adjacent office or something. Umm.. not that that happens here a lot.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Didn't feel a thing and don't give a shit.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
If this didn't happen in such a rural county, there could have been major damage. Virginia doesn't get earthquakes very often, and our buildings aren't made to with stand them. There were some reports of buildings that caved in in Mineral - imagine what would have happened if the epicenter was in a more urban area like Arlington or Richmond.
Not only that, but our emergency crews aren't prepared to respond. Most of our people have never even felt earthquakes.
I noticed this first on the USGS website, and was alarmed to see that the quake was near Farmville
I was on the second floor when things started rattling and we all went outside. It took about 2 minutes for the event to stop.
I felt nothing, but I might have been asleep...
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
The Obama administration has announced that the newly discovered fault line runs just south of DC all the way into Texas and will be name "Bush's Fault"
I felt it while on the beach in cape may new jersey, everyone was like "wtf" I thought it was kinda cool.
If I had to guess, it would be because he/she was "virtually shaking and [...] scared"? That doesn't warrant calling 911 but that's the reason he/she did it. Not hard to understand.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/top-16-earthquake-tweets/2011/08/23/gIQANgmJZJ_blog.html
You Mama's so fat, when she walks across the living room she makes the radio skip!!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
They basicially use over-determined triangulation to calculate epicenter coordinates. When the epicenter is close to the plane of seismometers, the vertical resolution is terrible. So they fix an arbitrary default depth to the quake to calculate lateral position.
GPS altitude resolution is poor for the same reason.
sitting in my house (messing with computer, of course :) and it felt like the house was bouncing up and down. went on for (I didn't time it) maybe a minute or so, variable strength.
God does want us to give to the poor, but only as individuals, not as citizens being taxed to death. You can't get to Heaven spending the money of others.
Slightly OT: The US can't reach and mess with European slashdotters, so they have much less qualms before stating what neighborhood they live in for all the world to see (forever). Japan's first quake/reactor story had a handful of responders indicating location earlier this year as well as slashdot-JAPAN comments partially translated in very informative efforts of a couple brave souls who said exactly where they got hit.
Despite ALL that, I've NEVER seen so many stating their location --remember that a few months down the road you're the same guys who might just jokingly post the DeCSS key or "You sank my battleship" re-twit. I guess this is how social engineering wins --feelings of helpfulness and disaster collaboration lower our defenses. For those who don't get it, American slashdotters are very secretive about giving up their location on a permanent storage medium because there are so many stalkers and LAWYERS with fingers in the right triggers.
It doesn't matter that a street address wasn't given; to someone dedicated to enough of a payoff, we all fall little by little; just like how everyone here agrees that "physical access makes that 1,000,000bit encryption key useless." Someone with an axe to grind can now google those /. nicks and add "earthquake" to find your town. Based on town, and your posting time, it narrows down which ISPs they need to subpoena for an IP address, without even knocking on Slashdot's doors.
I was operating a floor stripping machine (about a 7 on the Richter Scale) and missed it.
Aftershock please?
Trying to take out the root of the problem. Lobbyists.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
The chairs in the data center were sliding side to side (inch or so), saw my iced coffee sloshing as well.
Saw that already; both funny and informative seem appropriate.
I'm working in one of DC's Virginia suburbs this summer, and I definitely noticed my office walls shake for a few seconds in a couple bursts around 2 PM.
However, I admit I _am_ kinda in "no big deal" mode about the whole thing.
The building evacuations were more annoying. (of my office building, my highrise apartment building and assorted retail facilities where I may have run errands.)
Building security hustled us out, but I had already picked up most of my stuff. We waited around a bit before finding out that we were headed home for the day as opposed to going back in and finishing the day after the building was cleared. (I was reminded of school fire drills that ran 15 to 30 minutes or so.)
I live less than half a mile from the office, and took my bicycle like usual. Most people were trying to get out by car, and I was reminded of a crowd leaving a concert/sporting event - the vehicle traffic was bad enough that walking or bicycle riding was actually a quicker way out.
However, the apartment complex’s staff still had the elevators turned off, so I rode the bicycle around a bit to kill time/blow off steam, and eventually had dinner at a nearby fast food place that hadn’t closed down for the day.
I ended up back in the apartment by about the time I would have retuned from a normal work day.
However, I do need to deal with the fact that my phone’s texting keypads were coincidentally on the fritz.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
went outside to bird dog the girls streaming out of the building
Doin' it rite
I'm in Arizona... didnt feel a thing.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Quake-rattles-nerves-but-infrastructure-holds-up-2138099.php
1 diesel generator fails. And steam releases. Nukes, safe at any speed, especially run by cost cutting corporations.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/08/23/virginia.quake/
"Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant, less than 20 miles from the epicenter, shut down after the first tremors. Reidelbach said the plant vented steam, but there was no release of radioactive material."
And we believe that no radiation released, right? Of course, it will be revised later, like Fukushima or the BP Gulf of Mex. oil leak. My guess is cracked pipes
all over the rear end of the reactor, start running you Dixie trailer trash. You are hosed, and news flash, no one gives a krapo about your health.
Oh, but it is a totally unforeseen event, the like has never happened in recorded history, just like Fukushima. Who ever heard of earthquakes and tsunami in Japan?
Many of us felt it at Notre Dame. I got up right away and asked the lady in the cube over if she felt it too, and she did. Many at another building on campus felt it as well. It was very clear to me, my office chair rocked back and forth slowly.
I'm from California, and live here still; a 5.8 would be all over the news unless it was in the middle of East Bumfuck, San Bernardino County. [...] So yes, I know that in California we generally take these things in stride (though I guarantee you would be talking about a 5.8 if it hit near you), but just quit with the bullshit.
Yup. The most recent comparable earthquake I can recall here in the San Francisco Peninsula was the 2007 Alum Rock Earthquake, a 5.6. It was very noticeable, many people stopped working and spent the next 10 minutes chatting about it and browsing the web for information about it. It was a minor nationwide news story, meriting an AP story and brief mentions in CNN and the likes, and there were a few local stories the next day about the minor damage close to the epicenter. But then after that nobody really talks about it anymore.
A 5.9 in the east coast, well, that's a modest quake, but it's also a "Man bites dog" story.
Are you adequate?
Indeed. That's the reason we keep a land line, because if there's any major incident (and here in Seattle that can be two inches of snow) the cell system is clogged. With a land line you sometimes can't make a local call but you can almost always call long distance. Disaster recovery plans for your family should include an out-of-state number (granny, aunt, sister, friend, whatever) where messages can be left for each other.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
I felt the tremors in southern Maine.
I felt the quake in south central PA. I was confused at first when things started to sway. I thought it was a truck rolling by, a huge gust of wind or someone jumping around in my building but quickly I realized that the whole building was swaying and it wasn't just vibrations from within. It lasted for 5-10 seconds if I recall. As soon as the shaking stopped I was on the internet looking at USGS to see where it was. Like many others this is the first quake I have actually felt. I have heard reports of smaller quakes throughout my life but never really felt any until now.
This is punishment for attacks on Libya.
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
In fairness to them, you would feel pretty stupid if you were the only guy in Jersey to miss a Gundam hopping around the rooftops!
I was trying to reference the linking-to-the-obligatory-XKCD phenomenon without quite doing it myself. :)
And xkcd.com/number is pretty straightforward.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
twice
The Obama administration announced today that a previously undiscovered fault was the source of yesterday's East Coast Earthquake - it was Bush's Fault.
Sounded like the dryer was VERY unbalanced.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
About 40 miles from Mineral. Home to the world's greatest Used IBook distributor.
Wife and I were taking an afternoon nap. Building starts vibrating and rattling.
Asked the wife (california girl) Earthquake?
"Yes, do you have them here?"
She didn't want to hear about Virginia seismologic happenings or the thermally active areas in the state. She just went back to sleep.
I got up and googled for info, which was abundantly available, then turned on the TV. The local channels were into full info mode and went on for hours about the quake. Various politicians and other vultures put in their expected appearances and offered mostly uniformed opinions. The worst consequence seems to have been the early let off of all government workers in DC which jammed transportation in NVa.
He even broke parts of the National Cathedral - Turns out, He's not Episcopal .... He's Quaker.
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
God wants them to tax the rich (never God's favorite folks) and spend more money on poor people
Funny, I must have missed the part where Jesus forced the rich guy to drop more money into the offering box in that widow's mite story. And the part where Jesus told the poor people that they didn't have to pay taxes to Caesar, I don't remember that one either. I guess I need to study my Bible a little better. Or maybe your Bible's just different. Can I possibly get a copy of that?
Ah, gotcha. Thanks for explaining what you meant by the difference in geology. :)
(CAPTCHA: informed)