Who felt the Earthquake (Virginia)

Twitter is all a-twitter...

Saw one passing mention that The Washington Monument is out of plumb... or, more than it was before... flights cancelled at JFK, Newark... Amtrak stopping trains to inspect rails... will make for a chaotic commute tonight.

We felt it in Tidewater VA.

Computer Monitors were vibrating.

Didn't feel it here

We felt it clearly in the Columbia, SC area. We happen to have some people in the building that normally reside in Japan. We teased them that they brought it with them. It was mild but things were clearly moving.

Jim

My family felt it here in Suffolk Co, NY. Crazy stuff!

Pittsburgh...at first we just thought it was a James Harrison hit at camp

We live in Chevy Chase, MD just NW of the DC border.

1:50 PM local time - earthquake 5.9 magnitude!

We were indoors. The house started shaking. We thought a tree fell on the house, but it kept going for about 30-45 seconds. It is being reported on the local media including being felt as far away as Manhattan. Epicenter around 9 miles from Mineral, VA. Pretty close.

Everything ok here. We headed outside immediately to see what was going on. It's also safer not to have a house fall on you.

Fred

I felt the 5.9 here in Greenbelt MD. About 90 miles away from the center. Gentle roll at first then quite a shock. As far as I can tell, only one thing fell in my house but some ceilings and roofs in the general area collapsed.

I check my power generator to see if it was working [I'm supposed to fire it up about once a month -- but I have been tardy. After a bunch of pulls, it started.]

There was an aftershock -- but I didn't feel it.

Gary Hayman

Was down here on the 1st floor working in the office when it hit. At first I didn't know what was happening, had never felt such a slow shake before. I too was concerned about trees... we have some huge Oak trees that could easily cut the house in half. When I realized what was going on, I jumped under the desk.

It knocked a few things over upstairs, and some stuff that had been on top of the refrigerator was on the floor.

Pretty scary stuff. I certainly wouldn't want to experience that on a regular basis - especially the really powerful ones that could bring buildings down.

The weather might always be nice in California but I have no plans to move there... especially now.

As for the guy in Hawaii - what a showoff!

- Phil

I move from VA to CA, and you all have an earthquake before I do!

Don't worry, many more will occur with greater strength.

All a part of the predicted "Birth Pains".

Well, 5.0 is not really a big earthquake here in California. And, we have 3.0 or smaller earthquake everyday up and down the whole west coast from California, Oregon, Washington and all the way to Alaska. Small earthquake is just foot massage here.

Parkfield, CA (located in central California) is the earthquake capital of the world.

didn't feel anything here in Florida.

Only felt a minor shake - thought I dozed off.

people around here did but I was in the shower and didn't feel a thing

Some folks here say they felt it. I must have been asleep.

felt it on the beach at virginia beach, getting out friday IRENE is coming

Was standing in a doorway (good place to be during an earthquake) and the building started to sway. Thought at first it was a truck rumbling down the main street in front but it got stronger. Then I realized it was an earthquake. For me it was nothing spectacular as I have felt much worse in California and even those were routine to the folks there.

Felt it just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Felt it here in Brooklyn New York.

Although we all expect the West Coast to slip away some time in the future, remember that the biggest earthquake to hit North America had it's epicentre in Missouri! The New Madrid quake of 1812.

I was making a cup of coffee at the time it hit. Left it for a minute, came back and the coffee had stirred itself. The sound was eerie. Like a thunderstorm coming from the earth below.

I didn't feel a thing

- but -

my sister and her husband in Blacksburg, VA were taking a nap when the bed started shaking. She thought her husband had his hand on the wall shaking the bed to wake her when she realized everything on the walls were shaking too. THEN the bed took off across the room with them onboard. No damages though, just a ride.

8 other brothers and sisters in the MD, DC & VA area are all OK, Some bad shaking and some of their work offices are closed for structure damage and/or inspections.

Southeast Virginia. Totally felt it. No damage but scary nonetheless.

Some jiggling but i didn't feel anything in central Ontario.

I BARELY felt it in KY...honestly thought a delivery truck had passed by, then saw CNN break to "OH YIKES THERE'S BEEN A QUAKE IN VIRGINIA".

Pretty much doing health-welfare checks on folks right now that I know are in the area, hard to get through right now because even texting is getting slammed...

Whilst New Madrid (and the lesser-known but likely as dangerous Wabash Fault Zone in IN/IL/KY) are scary enough--two of only a very few Modified Mercalli Scale (basically to earthquakes as the EF scale is to tornados--damage scale) XII (total devastation) quakes ever recorded in North America hit in 1812--there ARE faultline systems that have put out larger quakes than New Madrid.

The New Madrid triad of quakes are estimated to have been in the mid-to-high 8.x range on the modern versions of the Richter scale.

The strongest seismometer-measured quake in the US (since the invention of the Richter Scale and its derivative scale systems) is the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964; that was a confirmed 9.2 and (until the Boxing Day earthquake-tsunami event) was the second largest seismometer-measured quake ever recorded. (For comparison: The Tohoku earthquake-tsunami event that hit Japan and essentially wiped Sendai off the map ended up as a 9.0; the Boxing Day quake-tsunami event of 2004 is estimated to be between 9.1 and 9.3, probably best comparable to the Great Alaska Earthquake (estimates do vary due to a lack of seismometer networks in the Indian Ocean at the time).)

There is evidence that there have been even bigger quakes in the continental US; an estimated mid-9.x quake and tsunami event is known to have occured off the coast of Washington and British Columbia, and this particular system (the Cascadia fault) is expected to throw another 9.x quake sometime in the next 50 to 100 years (presently it's considered the most dangerous fault system in the US, even more so than New Madrid). It is in fact known to have caused a deadly tsunami in Japan, which is how we know the exact date the last time Cascadia blew; First Nations of the area still had stories about entire towns and areas being wiped off the map in the 1800s and 1900s.

Of note--all of the systems that have thrown REALLY huge quakes in the 9.x range (the great Chilean quake of 1960 which is still the world's strongest measured quake at 9.5 on the Richter scale, the Tohoku quake-tsunami, the Great Alaska Earthquake, the Boxing Day quake-tsunami, and the Cascadia quake-tsunami) are from a particular type of faultline called a megathrust fault (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megathrust_earthquake).

Most quakes (such as the ones in California and the quake that hit Virginia today) are from continents that ran into each other, or historically have run into each other (basically the Appalachian Mountains were formed millions of years ago by Europe and North America slamming into each other; most of the Eastern Seaboard, as amazing as it sounds, are bits of Europe that got sheared off when a rift zone formed that eventually formed the Atlantic Ocean).

New Madrid and the Wabash Fault system (the SECOND most dangerous faultline system in America) have a relatively unusual origin for a quake system, and are in a family of fault systems also known for big quakes--these are a result of a "failed rift" where millions of years ago North America *almost* split into two continents. (This is in the "hundreds to over 50 million years ago" range--it's one reason you never really find dinosaur fossils in Kentucky and southern Indiana, but you DO find a lot of fossils of sea life; during the age of the dinosaurs, there was still enough of a rift that the area was basically an extension of the Gulf of Mexico.) The middle of the Atlantic tends to have frequent earthquakes (being a very much non-failed and very active rift fault zone), and the Rift Valley in Africa is also a textbook example of a rift forming of the type that almost made it in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys (basically eastern Africa is slowly splitting away to form its own continent--in about 60 million years or so).

Live about 50 miles north of Albany. The 3 story building I work in shook for about 30 seconds. Very weird feeling.

My Niece felt the quake NYC

I am in western nc and felt nothing

Several folks at work felt it. It seemed to depend on what part of the office you were in.

It's myth. Doorways won't protect you against falling/flying objects. Take cover under a sturdy table. It's safer.

Felt it here

I felt it while sitting on a chair against the wall. At the time, I only asked myself why was the building shaking. So my reaction was a bit more muted than everyone else around me.

Felt it, a little here. Our office is close to an airport and a military jet took off and while they are noisier than commercial jets, everyone commented that the jet was either lower or taking of slower than usual.... until we heard about the quake.

Sister lives in Alexandria. Said there were several loud bangs, like something slamming into the side of their condo (car, truck, etc..) then things started bouncing across the room.

Washington Monument supposedly is fine, it's not leaning more than it was already.

We'll be in Central VA in a few weeks, hopefully none of the sites/stops on our trip will be closed due to damage.

We felt it in Newport News. I'm on the 3rd floor of a 10 yr. old 7 story bldg.

As soon as it quit shaking, some people were headed for the stairs. Took 10 minutes for management to decide to evacuate the building. Some people did not leave, though.

in a meeting and started swaying mildly in my chair for about 30 seconds. thought some HVAC work was happening on the roof then realized it was an earthquake. felt like rocking in a boat.

I was in Manhattan on West End Ave near 79th Street and felt nothing. However my office building in Whitestone Queens was evacuated because of the swaying and movement.

My mother who lives about 10 miles East of the City line in Nassau was sitting in a Lazy-Boy Rocker that closed up on her. She was so frightened she ran out of the house. Later on we had a good laugh but at the time it was not fun for a VERY senior citizen

we in California get those all the time, expect more...man up!!

Is this one "Bush's Fault"? (get it, fault, fault, like in an earthquake fault"? Oh well....

Felt it upstate ny.

eye

There's a reason for that...geology. The make-up of the Earth's crust is vastly different in Virginia compared to California. Quakes of any significance where they can be felt are rare, and when they happen, they can be felt over a much larger area.

First one I have ever been through. I live about 20 minutes outside of Annapolis and some small things actually fell off tables at my home.

One of my folks called to say they were actually in an elevator at the airport in NY and felt the sideways motion of the tremor, and had no idea what was happening till they heard the pa announcement.

surprised me too...Missouri, I believe has more earthquakes than any other state...unless things have changed?

I evacuated New Orleans when Katrina struck. I would not want someone to tease me about hurricanes, so I am wondering what the people who normally live in Japan felt when you teased them about bringing the earthquake with them.

Exactly how far is Chevy Chase from the ocean? Is the area preparing for Irene?

Maybe it wasn't the same one, Christchurch is down to about 6 a day now,and not too many are over 4.5 these days

Cleveland, OH

California is so broke even the Earthquakes are moving to the East Coast.

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