5.8 earthquake in VA!!

Exodia · 08-23-2011, 02:37 PM

Map with better perspective on location:

CanadaSue · 08-23-2011, 02:38 PM

Good news! Obama has safely been evacuated from the golf course!

flourbug · 08-23-2011, 02:40 PM

Elenin!

Catbird · 08-23-2011, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CanadaSue

Reading 1 km or .6 of a mile underground.

I missed the decimal point! I think it's time to get new bifocals.

Coyote · 08-23-2011, 02:40 PM

It was quite noticeable up here in New Hampshire. Sort of a rolling or swaying action rather than a shaking.

CanadaSue · 08-23-2011, 02:41 PM

Ground stops at JFK, Newark & Phillie airports...

Catbird · 08-23-2011, 02:42 PM

NBC, via Weather Channel, reporting:

Amtrack shut down in "several NE states".

There has been damage to the Nat'l Cathedral in D.C. Stone has fallen off the exterior.

CanadaSue · 08-23-2011, 02:42 PM

DC fire departments have been ordered out of their stations to visually inspect buildings in their first alarm response areas. No confirmed damage reports yet in DC, northern Virginia...

D. Gale · 08-23-2011, 02:42 PM

Just heard on Headline News that some spires may have cracked or crumbled on the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

Amtrak shut down in the area for tunnel and bridge inspections.

ETA: Catbird beat me to it.

Samen · 08-23-2011, 02:42 PM

Twitter traffic suggests the quake was felt all over the East Coast.

In Cleveland, "tribeinsider" wrote "I'm no expert but i think we just had an earthquake here."

And even in Toronto, Canada, tweets said that the shaking could be felt for minutes.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/23...ashington-d-c/

CanadaSue · 08-23-2011, 02:43 PM

Rumour from FOX via another site that the Washington Monument is tilting?

I'll take that one with a pallet of salt.

Exodia · 08-23-2011, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flourbug

Elenin!

Do we not have a tinfoil hat smilie?? Couldn't find it. Part of the coverup I presume.

Catbird · 08-23-2011, 02:46 PM

USGS calling this the largest quake in the state of VA since 1897.

CanadaSue · 08-23-2011, 02:50 PM

A Canadian reporter in Washington said it was REALLY something. The earth shook, rumbled... & it went on a while.

Richmond is starting to report wall collapses, etc. Nothing confirmed & no scope or degree of damage reported yet.

Exodia · 08-23-2011, 02:52 PM

I'm reading that White House, Capitol and parts of the Pentgon evaced.

Pablo Escobar · 08-23-2011, 02:55 PM

son goes to University of Richmond, 30 miles away from epicenter.

He isn't responding to text messages, probaly they have outages of cell service.

The University of Richmond has a live webcam (just googled it), that you can control.

I scanned about 270 degrees and saw no damage, and students walking normally.

In addition, a brick bell tower was in view and showed no damage.

CanadaSue · 08-23-2011, 02:55 PM

Yes - lots of video of that. Now being reported that at least one big water pipe broken at the Pentagon - lots of standing water in 2 corridors. If that's the worst of it - they'll have gotten off very lightly.

Sysiphus · 08-23-2011, 02:56 PM

The surrounding area may get hit by a hurricane in a few days, too. I hope there are not a lot of damaged houses.

CanadaSue · 08-23-2011, 02:56 PM

pablo, pretty widespread cell service outage is being reported.

Pablo Escobar · 08-23-2011, 02:56 PM

Ok, he just replied to my text.

"Haha yeah it was good. Nothing I haven't experienced before haha".

Catbird · 08-23-2011, 02:56 PM

CNN reporting that there is "standing water" in 2 corridors at the Pentagon.

Sounds like water pipes broke.

ETA: CS beat me to it.

stars01 · 08-23-2011, 02:57 PM

House was gently swaying and creaking. We're getting ready for a possible hurricane and never expected an earthquake.

Exodia · 08-23-2011, 02:58 PM

Tectonic Summary

EARTHQUAKES IN THE CENTRAL VIRGINIA SEISMIC ZONE
Since at least 1774, people in central Virginia have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from infrequent larger ones. The largest damaging earthquake (magnitude 4.8) in the seismic zone occurred in 1875. Smaller earthquakes that cause little or no damage are felt each year or two.

Earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S., although less frequent than in the western U.S., are typically felt over a much broader region. East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast. A magnitude 4.0 eastern U.S. earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 100 km (60 mi) from where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source. A magnitude 5.5 eastern U.S. earthquake usually can be felt as far as 500 km (300 mi) from where it occurred, and sometimes causes damage as far away as 40 km (25 mi).

FAULTS
Earthquakes everywhere occur on faults within bedrock, usually miles deep. Most bedrock beneath central Virginia was assembled as continents collided to form a supercontinent about 500-300 million years ago, raising the Appalachian Mountains. Most of the rest of the bedrock formed when the supercontinent rifted apart about 200 million years ago to form what are now the northeastern U.S., the Atlantic Ocean, and Europe.

At well-studied plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault system in California, often scientists can determine the name of the specific fault that is responsible for an earthquake. In contrast, east of the Rocky Mountains this is rarely the case. The Central Virginia seismic zone is far from the nearest plate boundaries, which are in the center of the Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea. The seismic zone is laced with known faults but numerous smaller or deeply buried faults remain undetected. Even the known faults are poorly located at earthquake depths. Accordingly, few, if any, earthquakes in the seismic zone can be linked to named faults. It is difficult to determine if a known fault is still active and could slip and cause an earthquake. As in most other areas east of the Rockies, the best guide to earthquake hazards in the seismic zone is the earthquakes themselves.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...ld.php#summary

flourbug · 08-23-2011, 02:59 PM

My daughter in NJ was in CVS. Got to the counter and everyone was talking about "just feeling an earthquake". She didn't notice. Got back to work and everyone was talking about the building shaking and things falling over. She didn't notice. She wants a do-over. This time she'll pay attention.

Glockd · 08-23-2011, 02:59 PM

Gonna be a very long couple of days. So many things will need to be inspected. I am hearing reports of cracks, holes, the sound of "cracking" metal, according to one witness. Thoughts and prayers for all in the region with an extra bit of hope for our TBM folks .