Earthquake in Maryland

[lawg]

Maryland Earthquake History:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/maryland/history.php

Also this: History Of Earthquakes In Virginia

Oops I put wrong link there...Maryland should read Virginia...although a reading of the neighboring states would help context too.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/virginia/history.php

 

[ScottD]

Not being a left-coaster that is used to the ground shaking; is it normal to feel a quake so far away from the epicenter?

 

[anart]

Not being a left-coaster that is used to the ground shaking; is it normal to feel a quake so far away from the epicenter?

I don't think it's that unusual - it depends on the land where the quake occurs and the depth of the quake as well, I think. Solid bedrock can carry the vibration a long distance, from what I understand.

 

[Keit]

I felt very slight, almost unnoticeable, tremors all the way up here north of the border.

Just read that people in Toronto, Canada felt it too. That's some earthquake. Maybe because it was so shallow.

 

[ScottD]

Update: 2 reactors at Lake Anna have been shut down. There's been concern about this plant for years and it's been ignored. Even though it's the 7th most at risk for earthquake damage, there's no reason to fix it right?

_http://dom.com/about/stations/nuclear/north-anna/index.jsp

 

[Divide by Zero]

Not being a left-coaster that is used to the ground shaking; is it normal to feel a quake so far away from the epicenter?

I read something about the New Madrid fault and they showed a map comparing the distance a quake can spread in California vs the east coast. The east coast one was about 3x bigger than California's!

 

[3DStudent]

Never experienced one before. I was at work in central MD and the building shook pretty loudly. I got under my desk, but by then it was over. It was only like 30 seconds. I had two floors of a big steel building above me so I don't know if a desk would have saved me. Here's a thread that talks about what to do during one. I can't remember if the get under a piece of furniture suggestion was the best way to go.

It was a nice day outside while we exited the building and stood in the warm daylight. I couldn't help thinking of what's it going to be like when this is more frequent, or when it's comets. And I thought of sinkholes too. Definitely an eye opener. These earth changes are really happening. Sobering too.

 

[bngenoh]

I am sorry about posting in the coming earthquake thread instead of this one, u hadn't seen it.

But the phones in my area (Aberdeen, Maryland) aren't working. Anybody else having this after effect?

I haven't been able to connect with anyone with my cell phone since the quake - everyone must be calling everyone else. Not sure if landlines are down or not.

Both landlines and cellphones were down, but they're back know.

 

[Zadius Sky]

I felt it heavily here in High Point, NC and reported it to USGS. Apparently it was felt from NYC down to us.

I was at work in Raleigh, North Carolina. I was in a bathroom, in front of a stall and seeing the stall going sideways and feeling the vibrations in my legs - I was confused and wasn't sure what it was. Then, I went back to work and found a couple of people who said that they felt some vibrations (seeing the wall move, etc.) while other people who did not. Earthquake first came to mind.

I figure it has occurred in Virginia because only times that NC feels the effects of earthquakes is when it happens in VA (I remembered it happened before on a small scale back in 2004 or 2005). I wasn't allowed to use the computer at work, so I asked the one of the customers (when they were using the iPod - finding out the news) and surprised to learn that it was 5.8 - that's big and rare for Virginia. They say that it didn't happen like this since May 1897.

Think it's the effects of the comet Honda (which is passing us by)?

 

[Lilou]

I was in my car having a smoke, in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and felt the tremor. At the time, I had no idea what caused the car to rock - no wind. So I shut off the engine. Felt another rock. Opened the door, looked at the ground. Everything seemed normal. I didn't even think Earthquake! I found out later on the radio. It was also felt it in Kalamzoo, MI.

I had no idea the waves could travel that far! Indiana had its own unprecedented earthquake Dec 30, 2010, 3.8 centered in Kokomo, Indiana. I didn't feel that, even though it was much, much closer than Washington DC/Virginia.

 

[realitybugll]

wow, just felt an earthquake right now. In the california bay area... with all this talk about earthquakes today just thought I'd mention it. I don't know the magnitude yet but I'm guessing 4 or 5 from where the epicenter is an my location.


hmm... it says 3.9 now.

 

[Laura]

"Highly unusual, once in a century" 5.8 Virginia earthquake leaves geologists puzzled

August 24, 2011 – VIRGINIA - The strong earthquake that rattled the eastern United States on Tuesday was highly unusual in its severity, though it was centered in a part of Virginia known for smaller quakes, seismologists said. The initial earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 5.9 just before 2 p.m. EDT, was felt from the Carolinas to New England.

"One of this size is highly unusual," said Karen Fisher, a professor of seismology at Brown University and president-elect of the seismology section at the American Geophysical Union. "This is the largest earthquake by far that I am aware of occurring there in recent history."

The quake's epicenter in central Virginia is in an area the U.S. Geological Survey calls the Central Virginia Seismic Zone, Fisher said by phone from Providence, Rhode Island. While the strength of the quake was unusual, the wide spread of the shock waves was common for the East Coast, according to Peggy Hellweg, a research seismologist at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory in California.

This is largely due to the difference in the terrain, Hellweg said in a telephone interview. "Our ground is all of this chopped-up stuff ... like a pile of marbles," Hellweg said of California's geology, which means that the waves from a quake don't spread out all that far. In the Eastern United States, she said, "What you've got there is gorgeous bedrock and ... the waves propagate beautifully."

Another difference between the East and West U.S. coasts is that the West Coast is over the boundary between two active tectonic plates, the North American and the Pacific, and the force of these plates sliding against each other generates quakes regularly, Fisher said.

In the East, she said, "There's no driving engine in terms of the two plates sliding past each other ... so that's why it's much more unusual." David Oppenheimer, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said aftershocks should be expected for months. "You'll feel magnitude 3 earthquakes over great distances ... I would expect tens of magnitude 3s for earthquakes of this size," Oppenheimer said from Menlo Park, California.

 

[shellycheval]

I had not felt an earthquake since the mid 70s when I was living in Hawaii, but it only took a few seconds to recognize the feeling--a deep primal sense of fear and an urge to GET OUT of the building I was in with about 80 other people in a meeting. Everything was moving--videos shown on TV of things trembling and falling do not reveal the depth and intensity of what people are experiencing in an earthquake. The concrete sidewalks rose 2-3 feet up in places and then settled back down and looked perfectly fine--surreal. We were about 70-80 miles from the epicenter.

Just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if this was an "induced" earthquake? Many people's first thoughts in the NY and DC areas were that the shaking was a bomb and had flashbacks to their 911 fears. Perhaps inducing a quake so close to the 10 year anniversary of 911 is a good way to get most people on the East Coast back into "FEAR" mode.

Hurricane Irene will be upon us this weekend and provide a continuation of the fear factor en masse. Indeed these "interesting times" are getting more interesting rapidly!!
shellycheval

 

[Laura]

Just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if this was an "induced" earthquake? Many people's first thoughts in the NY and DC areas were that the shaking was a bomb and had flashbacks to their 911 fears. Perhaps inducing a quake so close to the 10 year anniversary of 911 is a good way to get most people on the East Coast back into "FEAR" mode.

Hurricane Irene will be upon us this weekend and provide a continuation of the fear factor en masse. Indeed these "interesting times" are getting more interesting rapidly!!
shellycheval

I know that a lot of people want to turn to the "HAARP" and "induced" and "this ain't natural" explanations for all the things that are going on here on the BBM, but stop, please, and think.

Earth changes of exactly the sort that are being experienced have been predicted by numerous sources for over a hundred years or more. The scientific evidence for just such periods of increased cataclysmic activity is overwhelming.

So why, all of a sudden, does everyone forget that?

Maybe because that is what the PTB wants and is propagandizing to achieve.

 

[ScottD]

This is largely due to the difference in the terrain, Hellweg said in a telephone interview. "Our ground is all of this chopped-up stuff ... like a pile of marbles," Hellweg said of California's geology, which means that the waves from a quake don't spread out all that far. In the Eastern United States, she said, "What you've got there is gorgeous bedrock and ... the waves propagate beautifully."

Ahh, thanks for this! Now that makes sense that the vibration doesn't dissipate as easily but spreads across a greater area. I wonder if this relates to the fact that there was very little damage per say compared to that of the west coast or other areas where a quake is more localized, thus heavier damage of structures. It's also kind of scary to consider that a larger magnitude quake anywhere on the east cost would easily affect or be felt by half of the US.