5.8 Earthquake just hit Virginia

[SpringHollow]

We felt it in Rochester, NY. Pretty impressive to feel it given how far away it was (over 500 miles).

Ken

 

[toy]

Our schools are closed for tomorrow. The area was shook up pretty hard.

My son lives in Fairfax, and I tried to get in touch with him but he wasn't answering his phone. Sometimes he works late so that wouldn't be unusual. He finally sent us an e-mail and all he said was "there was a little shaking everything okay. He don't ever go into any detail, but in some cases I guess that is a good trait, I have seen some that I wish would learn from him.

 

[toy]

I just heard that the Obama Administration has just named the epicenter of the earthquake. They are calling it Bush's Fault.:laughing:

No the earth quake was not Bush's fault so don't go looking for something to blame him for, he was a big enough goof up in his own right.

 

[Marks481]

Toy- landlines and cell phones were down here in fairfax immediately following the quake (cell phones were still iffy 2 hours later), so it probably wasn't your son's fault.

You would think with the recent footage from Japan in mind, people would be smarter. I was on the fifth floor of a tall glass building, and we swayed all over the place. Nobody ran for the stairs or the center core of the building which would be the safest place. The floors that evacuated clustered immediately around the base of the buildng.

I hope DC doesn'tever get a real earthquake, because everyone has no clue how to react.

 

[BobRip]

I was driving and did not even notice. We are only about 30 miles from Mineral VA. I went into the auto parts store right after it and they were all excited. The tall parts racks really rattled. I noticed a crack in my ceiling is a little wider. I suspect people will find lots of damaged areas over the next few days. Probably mostly small stuff.

 

[Zxyrthe]

I'm in Ashland, VA. If I hadn't been inside, I probably would not have noticed it. The house rattled but that was it. No fallen branches, no cracked mortar or plaster. One picture seemed a little crooked but that could've been the dog or nearby train traffic.

 

[MossRoad]

They felt it at my wife's place of employment in South Bend, Indiana. :thumbsup:

 

[ToadHill]

The president announced that the quake was along a fault line known as the "Bush's Fault"

I have it on good authority that the quake was caused by our founding fathers rolling over in their graves.

 

[BKBrown]

We are in Madison, VA (less than 60 miles to Mineral) -- Quite a lot of shaking and all the pictures needed to be leveled afterwards. A good 30 to 40 seconds of shaking.

Closest thing I can relate it to is a 40 ton vibrating roller that was used on road construction for an interstate. The 1st aftershock about 8:00 was quite noticable too and I'm told there was a 2nd at about 1:45 AM - slept thru that one.

 

[Gravy]

Come to LA. 5.8 is your alarm clock going off. It is so bad people don't even wake for it. Seriously. But having been through two big quakes (7's) it is scary as all heck. Feel for the people, it is not a lot of fun to suddenly realize you have very little control over your destiny when it comes to mother nature.

Carl

It seems that an East Coast 5.8 is very different from the same magnitude on the West Coast. If I understand correctly, the East Coast faults are much shallower and the plates are much stiffer than those out West. As a result, the Eastern quakes shake harder at the surface and affect a much larger area than an equivalent magnitude Western quake.

Inferring a lot, I *think* that magnitude is determined at the point of plate slippage. If so, it makes sense that an equal magnitude shallow quake is more destructive at the surface than a deep quake.

BTW, my wife, my dogs and I all failed to notice it.