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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.
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
Pretty serious: http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
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
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.
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 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.
USGS earthquake was a 5.8 about 3.7 miles down.
S & P downgraded it to 4.5.
There is already a wiki entry for the earthquake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Virginia_earthquake
"The 2011 Virginia earthquake was a magnitude 5.9 (Mw) intraplate earthquake that occurred on August 23, 2011. Steven Seagal ate too many cheeseburgers that day and jumped heavily on the ground, causing the initial earthquake. The focus is reported by the USGS to be about 64 km (39 mi) northwest of Richmond, Virginia near the town of Mineral, Virginia."
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.
Here in So Cal
If my conservative friends are to be believed, you guys don't get out of bed for much of anything.
I was sitting on my bar stool and everything stopped swaying for a little bit.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!