Earthquake in DC today

[Snickers]

My son moved to DC to go to George Washington Law School from CA. He called me this afternoon to let me know that DC had a big earthquake 5.9. He only thought that only California had earthquakes. I told him maybe it's rare that they have them.

Are there other states that have earthquakes?

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Anywhere can have earthquakes. It's just more likely to happen at the major fault lines.

It originated in VA, but I didn't feel much. My mom in MD said it nearly felt like the 7.something in CA in '89 - she was surprised it wasn't more than a 5.8/5.9.

 

[Dragonflye]

It is rare, which is why a relatively smallish quake is getting so much publicity. I live in Vermont and have felt a few smallish tremors since I've lived here- 46 years... I slept through the earthquake today- hubby said he felt it though.

 

[Jenn]

I live in NW Washington state and we have had earthquakes here, although it has been a few years since I've felt one. I remember my son was little when we had one, and I was sitting on the couch and thought the spin cycle was going crazy on the washing machine! lol. This area is overdue for a large 9 or so earthquake, and I hope that day never comes!

 

[CrazyForChinchillas]

I felt it in NY at work. It wasn't as bad as if I was there, but it shocked me. I remember feeling another one in the 90s that woke me up in the summer and that scared me. But anywhere can get an earthquake and the after shock can spread hundreds of miles, like today.

 

[Snickers]

I can only feel the earthquakes if they are 5 plus. CA also is due for another big one sorry to follow Californians but I hope that day doesn't come soon.

 

[3CsMommy]

We noticed it near Lake Erie/Buffalo b/c stuff on the shelves at work started wiggling, but it only affected one half of the store (NW corner, oddly enough). I thought it was related to the local oil/gas drilling industry until we saw a news report. :whacko: That said, there's a big fault running along the east coast, roughly in line with the Appalachian Mountain chain. That's the part that moved today. My parents on the other side of the same mountains, but closer to VA than we are, didn't feel a thing. I felt two while growing up in Ohio; one in roughly 1985 (based on how old I was at the time), and one in 1998 or 1999. Generally the quakes on the east coast aren't as bad as California's, but they're common enough. Unless your son just brought one with him so he didn't get homesick. :wink:

 

[Andrea]

Definitely felt it in downtown Philly...it actually made me a little queasy...LOL! Hope to never feel anything like that again, it was really weird.

 

[Ash]

Didn't feel it here, although my boyfriend about 2 miles away did. Apparently, at our house also, the neighbors felt it, but Keith's mom didn't. She said the only difference was the dogs go agitated and Cassi got a little fussy.

 

[ABBY W.]

I live about 30 miles from the epicenter. It was pretty scary but luckily there wasn't a lot of damage or injuries. I had a few photos shaken off the walls, the local stores lost some of the glass jar items, etc. Overall, it could have been much worse.

 

[LexieHeg]

I'm in Canada but I know that, while we don't usually experience earthquakes, we frequently experience the tremors from others. When I lived in Ontario there was 4 or 5 times that the tremors woke me up at night. Now in Alberta I have yet to experience tremors but I'm sure they are there.

 

[GorillaJTA]

Here in Memphis, we are actually closer to a stronger (if less active) fault line than California, the New Madrid. We have the occasional shake, but the experts say we are due for a big one any day now (being in the next decade, century, millenium...). Back in the early 1800's, we had one strong enough to make the Mississippi River flow backward and change its course in some area, which is why some pieces of TN are on the wrong side of the river.

 

[suzi1780]

I am two hours from the epicenter. I was sitting in my home office when it happened. At first I thought it was the washing machine being horribly unbalanced so I ran and turned it off, then I ran back into my office and thought maybe a plane was getting ready to crash near my house (I live close to Dulles airport) the chinchilla cages were shaking so I grabbed them and tried to steady them. I didn't think about it being an earthquake until I heard my neighbor leaving her condo and I ran out to talk to her. I asked her if she knew what was going on and she said she thought it was an earthquake and that she took cover in a door frame. I never even thought about taking cover, I was just worried about the chins!

 

[Airyn]

I felt it northwest of Philly. It was really mild, but it definitely shocked me. I put on my shoes, grabbed my purse and headed outside. My coworker grabbed only her coffee... priorities!

 

[Snickers]

Generally the quakes on the east coast aren't as bad as California's, but they're common enough. Unless your son just brought one with him so he didn't get homesick. :wink:[/QUOTE]

That is it he was home sick - lol.

 

[Spoof]

Had quite a few in western WA state - though living on a peat bog we didn't feel them like everyone else did. Eastern WA state/ID did not have them that I know of.

Louisiana does not have them, but we do have the oil companies that go around and do deep area blasting to find blobs of oil. They're strong enough to knock plates off walls and such.

 

[6Dusters]

I live about 41 miles east of Mineral which was the epicenter of yesterdays earthquake. I was home and thought the gravel quarry ( about 4 miles away ) was doing a routine blast. After a moment the strength increased and I shouted at my daughter " OUT OF THE HOUSE NOW!"
We were upstairs and ran down the stairs and straight out the door away from the house. I looked at the house to see all 9 floor to ceiling windows vibrating like a shimmer. Seemed like a long 30 seconds. At one point it seemed to slow to a stop and then all windows started shimmering again and I moved us down the driveway. All the dogs outside in the neighborhood were barking all around us.

When we came back inside the house one of my cats was puffed up as if a cattle prod touched her. And her eyes were huge. My ancient kitty had a serious look of confusion. Most of the chins were startled. Not barking but up on all fours and frozen. Others were sleeping as if nothing happened.

I inspected my previous earthquake cracks in the dry wall from some years back. Didn't see any further cracking. That earthquake was about 8 years ago I believe. It was far worse in respects to noise and violent quaking. That quake made my clock chime and you could hear the wood in the attic creaking and it sounded like bowling balls thrown all over the roof. Yesterdays earthquake sounded like a rock quarry blast of low rumbles. I described it to my parents as if you were standing on a giant skate board with another person who was jumping up and down as hard as they could.

Did feel the 8 pm aftershock. At first I thought it was a helecopter doing a fly over. With the military and the university trauma helecopter always flying overhead, you just get used to it. Then I felt that "rumble". I jumped up and was headed for the door. My husband calmed my nerves and mentioned aftershock. Having grown up in tornado alley, I can tell you this spooks me a lot more.
And did I mention Hurricane Irene wants to give Virginia a possible crap kicking?
If I even see the sun turn black and the moon turn red.......

 

[ResilientRosie]

I was woken from my nap yesterday afternoon because my bed shook. I live in Michigan! I was surprised to hear later where the quake was, but then again a couple of months ago we felt the aftershocks of a quake too. That time my wine glasses rattled and I had never experienced something like that before so I got a little creeped out. We don't get that sort of thing in Michigan, so I admit my first thought wasn't "it's an earthquake"...

 

[Brittany]

We felt the VA earthquake out here in Ohio. There is a fault line in northern Illinois, and we had a small earthquake about 4 years ago. It woke me up, and was a very weird experience.

 

[chin2heart]

We here in Colorado had a 5.3 late Monday evening. Fortunately it was in southern Colorado and a sparsely populated county, but there was some minor damage done. Wonder if the Colorado quake had something to do with the East Coast quake? We have had quakes in the Rocky Mt. area but nothing much more than a 6.6 (1887). Had a series of shallow quakes in the mid 70's due to shale-oil fracking on the Western slope. Once the easy oil ran out and the drilling ceased, so did the quakes.