Excerpt
The magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck Virginia on Tuesday gives new meaning to the word "aftershock." Residents up and down the East Coast had trouble believing what they were feeling -- that the earth was literally trembling beneath their feet.
In sending texts and emails to subscribers, New York's emergency alert system tried to make quite sure that residents knew this wasn't a joke: An alert went out at 2:12 p.m. Eastern with the heading: "This is an ACTUAL EARTHQUAKE ALERT."
After all, an earthquake is the kind of thing that's supposed to happen in Los Angeles. But not New York City. Or Boston. Or Washington, D.C. Or North Carolina. (There were a smattering of reports that the quake was felt in Ohio and even Ontario.) Yet, up and down the East Coast on Tuesday people reacted with outright shock and disbelief as the news was confirmed by the U.S. Geological Service.
PHOTOS: Earthquake hits the East Coast
The 5.8 earthquake was centered near Mineral, Va., about 80 miles from Washington, D.C., and more than 300 miles away from New York City. That area often has smaller earthquakes, usually no stronger than magnitude 3.0 and rarely felt by people who live there, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the USGS in Colorado, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Tuesday's earthquake occurred at a relatively shallow depth in the crust, which indicates a strong likelihood of sizable aftershocks, possibly upward of magnitude 5.0 and almost certainly in the range of 2.0 to 4.0, Blakeman said. There were no immediate reports of injuries, and initial reports of damages appeared nominal considering the magnitude.
"Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake Shakes The White House, Virginia, Eastern Seaboard" by Michael Theis, Woodinville Patch 8/23/2011
The United States Geological Survey says a 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook Fredericksburg, Va., along with the better portion of the East Coast around 1:50 p.m. on the East Coast. The quake rattled pictures and valuables off of walls. In and around Fredericksburg, residents are reporting trouble with cellphone networks.
"I thought Jesus was coming back," said Carla Roop, in an interview. She had never experienced an earthquake before, but was dining with a former California resident, as well as her husband and son, in Stafford County when the quake struck.
Her young son said the tremors caused his orange juice to splash on him as they ran outside.
According to data from the USGS, the quake was centered in Louisa County, near the town of Mineral. The epicenter of the quake was about 34 miles southwest of Fredericksburg, 27 miles east of Charlottesville and 39 miles north of Richmond.
The quake was less than a mile underground, with the USGS describing it as a poorly constrained quake 0.6 of a mile underground.
According to Twitter reports, the shaking was felt as far away as Cleveland and New York City.
Seattle-area sports columnist Greg Johns, a writer for the shuttered Eastside daily paper King County Journal and who now works for MLB.com, tweeted: "Still a little wobbling in the press box at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Hearing quake was centered outside D.C., must have been big one." Johns, who was at the Mariners-Indians game, later tweeted that it was not felt on the field, though others in the stands reported feeling shaking.
Bellevue-native and AOL employee Scott Iwata, who works in New York City, tweeted to Bellevue Patch: "Yeah we're good out here just noticed my monitors were wiggling and felt my leg shake without me shaking it."
News reports say that the Pentagon was being evacuated after the quake.
The tremors sent people scurrying into the streets here near the home offices of Fredericksburg Patch on Forbes Street.
Hector Correra, a painter working at 1314 Caroline Street was on top of a ladder scraping paint when the quake struck.
"It was weird." said the shaken Correra. He said he's never felt an earthquake in Virginia before.
Dina Young, owner of Moms of Fredericksburg, was on the phone and her children were playing when the quake happened.
"I grabbed my three children and took cover in the basement," said Young on Facebook. "No way to get through to 911 so we waited a little while and then turned on channel 4 to see the report."
Lorisa Robinson told Patch that she is having cellphone trouble at the moment.
"I have no outgoing cell service but I am getting alerts," said Robinson. "I can't call or send texts but Internet is working."
"It felt like a train was going through, shaking everything, didn't quite know what to do," said Robinson.
"'Extraordinary' East Coast Quake a Reminder of Seismic Threat in Most States" PBS Newshour 8/23/2011
Excerpt from transcript
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): And, finally, help put this in perspective for folks in just a few seconds that we have remaining here. For people who might not have been there to feel a Japan or a Haiti, how much more powerful were those?
DR. DAVID APPLEGATE, U.S. Geological Survey: The Haiti earthquake was a magnitude 7, so it's roughly sort of 10 to 15 times larger in terms of the magnitude.
But what's really key here is the amount of energy released. So, for each order of magnitude, you're looking at 33 times greater energy. The Japan earthquake was 1,000 times more energy than that Haiti earthquake, but it's about 33,000 to 50,000 times more energy released than this one.
And so that's what makes it truly amazing to have it felt over such a broad area, and a reminder that there is a potential for large earthquakes. We have had them in the Eastern U.S. We certainly have had them in the Central U.S. And they can have a big impact.
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