5.8 Earthquake in Virginia

[6a]

Didn't feel it but my wife (in Philly right now) did...

[Stephane Dumas]

A bit earlier this week, a 5.3 Earthquake shaked Colorado  http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0823/Colorado-earthquake-is-largest-in-four-decades.

I still have some memories of the 1988 Saguenay quake who shaken Quebec http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/histor/20th-eme/saguenay88/saguenay88-eng.php

[1995hoo]

Didn't feel it but my wife (in Philly right now) did...

....

Reports are that the quake caused about $5 million of improvements to Philadelphia.

[74/171FAN]

I thought it was my apartment shaking(since I'm living off campus at Va Tech this year) from someone walking on the floor above, but my mom back home in Prince George was freaking out.

[NE2]

Reports are that the quake caused about $5 million of improvements to Philadelphia.

That sounded stupid, didn't it?

[Zmapper]

Ok, that was a funny typo 1995hoo.

I didn't really feel the Colorado Earthquake. I have heard that others felt slight movements as a result of it.

[agentsteel53]

Earthquakes in the East coast is in comparison more common than Hurricanes landing on the California coast (none on record).

we got the last of Hurricane Dean on August 28th, 2007 (after it had crossed Mexico), resulting in a rarely seen thunderstorm over coastal Orange County.

[1995hoo]

Ok, that was a funny typo 1995hoo.

....

Typo? Where did I make a typo? 

[PAHighways]

It must have been that period somewhere between 1:15 and 1:30 where I thought I was having vertigo, otherwise I didn't feel anything and I didn't hear nor see anything move.

PennDOT Inspectors Begin Precautionary Bridge Inspections after Earthquake

On a related note, do they teach earthquake preparedness back east?

The only drill I had in school was for tornadoes.

[akotchi]

I was in my recliner working on my laptop when I felt it shake.  Thought it was one of our cats tugging on the blanket draping over the back.  Didn't think anything of it until my wife called from Malvern, PA, having felt the same shaking there.

[Duke87]

At 1:51 PM I was in the vicinity of Columbus Circle in New York... felt nothing, saw nothing. Same goes for most people I talked to, although someone did claim she saw the building across the street from her office shake.

...which seems a little odd to me. Should a 5.8 really be detectable by humans 300 miles away from the epicenter?

[Stephane Dumas]

...which seems a little odd to me. Should a 5.8 really be detectable by humans 300 miles away from the epicenter?

Good question, some humans might be more able to detect them then others, then does animals like cats and dogs could feel it 300 miles away from the epicenter?

And I spotted this article which talk of a worst-case scenario, the Indian Point nuclear power plant
http://gizmodo.com/5833746/what-if-the-earthquake-had-hit-manhattan

[Ian]

Didn't feel it all the way up here in New Hampshire, however relatives in Bennington, VT felt it. It's a shame, the one time an earthquake occurs at home, I'm away. 

[Brandon]

It must have been that period somewhere between 1:15 and 1:30 where I thought I was having vertigo, otherwise I didn't feel anything and I didn't hear nor see anything move.

PennDOT Inspectors Begin Precautionary Bridge Inspections after Earthquake

On a related note, do they teach earthquake preparedness back east?

The only drill I had in school was for tornadoes.

We had both in school here in Illinois.  With Tornado Alley and New Madrid, we could get either.  Granted, an EF-5 is far more common, but the other could be more widespread.

[rickmastfan67]

It was noticeable here in Pittsburgh...

Especially in the North Hills.  My dad was sitting in the car and he felt it move the car.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Next earthquake I feel will be the first one.

[Michael in Philly]

It must have been that period somewhere between 1:15 and 1:30 where I thought I was having vertigo, otherwise I didn't feel anything and I didn't hear nor see anything move.

PennDOT Inspectors Begin Precautionary Bridge Inspections after Earthquake

On a related note, do they teach earthquake preparedness back east?

The only drill I had in school was for tornadoes.

I'd have said more like 1:45 if they weren't reporting 1:51.  Certainly, nothing had happened as of 1:40.

[Michael in Philly]

Didn't feel it but my wife (in Philly right now) did...

....

Reports are that the quake caused about $5 million of improvements to Philadelphia.

I snarl in your general direction.

[Michael in Philly]

At 1:51 PM I was in the vicinity of Columbus Circle in New York... felt nothing, saw nothing. Same goes for most people I talked to, although someone did claim she saw the building across the street from her office shake.

...which seems a little odd to me. Should a 5.8 really be detectable by humans 300 miles away from the epicenter?

I was wondering that too, but apparently because our geology is older (more brittle, I suppose) and we're in the middle of a plate....

[elsmere241]

At 1:51 PM I was in the vicinity of Columbus Circle in New York... felt nothing, saw nothing. Same goes for most people I talked to, although someone did claim she saw the building across the street from her office shake.

...which seems a little odd to me. Should a 5.8 really be detectable by humans 300 miles away from the epicenter?

My cousin (California native, lived there his whole life) was around Union Square when it hit.  He said it felt like a 2.5 to him there, but was surprised that NYC would ever feel anything.

[elsmere241]

It must have been that period somewhere between 1:15 and 1:30 where I thought I was having vertigo, otherwise I didn't feel anything and I didn't hear nor see anything move.

PennDOT Inspectors Begin Precautionary Bridge Inspections after Earthquake

On a related note, do they teach earthquake preparedness back east?

The only drill I had in school was for tornadoes.

I'd have said more like 1:45 if they weren't reporting 1:51.  Certainly, nothing had happened as of 1:40.

I reported 1:51 yesterday because that's the time that was on my monitor when I was saving everything.  Has that been reported as the "official" time?

[Michael in Philly]

^^I don't know if it counts as official (presumably they're all relying on an official source, though), but I kept hearing 1:51 in the media, and I just looked at the office copies of the Philadelphia Inquirer* and New York Times and it's there as well.

*Which has the obligatory if-it-were-centered-here-we'd-be-screwed (thanks to our older housing stock) story.

[vdeane]

I was on I-81 at the time.  Don't recall feeling anything, but I probably thought it was a gust of wind.

[Desert Man]

Indeed yesterday's earthquake was felt over a wider area than any (most not registered above M7.5) known to occur in California.

Wider, flatter and older geological ages of the earth (in this case the eastern half of North America) will have a higher range of seismic waves to travel, compared to the smaller, more mountainous and younger region such as California. Most of the state's land age is thought less than 200 million years old.

The Laurentine shields and the (southern) Appalachias are about 300-350 million years old, but the northern Appalachias including the Aridondacks and the Green or White Mountains, including Eastern Canada all the way to Hudson Bay and the Ungava peninsula plus Labrador are 400-450 million, you can even find 500 or 550 million year old rocks and formations.

Mountains absorb seismic shock waves to be felt in less strength when seismic waves travels onto the other side, and mountain ranges are are less active in earthquake occurrence in the historical seismic record than valleys known for more fault lines.

[Desert Man]

A bit earlier this week, a 5.3 Earthquake shaked Colorado  http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0823/Colorado-earthquake-is-largest-in-four-decades.

I still have some memories of the 1988 Saguenay quake who shaken Quebec http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/histor/20th-eme/saguenay88/saguenay88-eng.php

About the one in Southern Colorado was felt from west of the Rockies to northern New Mexico to Denver as a relatively small one to them. The Rocky Mountains has some faults responsible for the formation of high elevated mountainous terrain, as well the widening of the Great Basin from the Wasatch Front in the east (Salt Lake Valley of Utah) to the Sierra Nevada in the west marked by some volcanic calderas, prehistoric lava fields and hot spring geysers.

Seattle had a M7 tremor in Feb. 27, 2001, the largest recorded quake for the Pacific Northwest, and the Puget Sound has several active or dormant faults, depending on each one of its given histories. Seismic activity does occur in the Cascades, esp. on the western side of the range through its 11 or 12 dormant volcanoes plus Mount St. Helens known for its velocity for over 30 years.

St. Helens is indeed damous for its' major landslide-explosive (about the power of over 500 A-Bombs!) eruption in May 18, 1980. It sure devastated a radius of 20 square miles mostly north as it's ash cloud spreads a mighty force to known down a whole forest, and the mixed rock-ice caused very hot mudflows. Ashfall covered hundreds of miles in northern Oregon and Washington state, esp. the May 18th eruption dumped a foot or more of genuine volcanic ash eastward in Yakima and Spokane.