BREAKING NEWS: 5.8 Magnitude Earthquake in Virginia

There is a chain of (low) mountains running up the whole east side of the US. That is a clear indication that something, a long time in the past, was folding there. It certainly is not an area that is prone to earthquakes, but it is definitely an area where things can move a bit. Like they did this time.

We felt it in Ohio. I was bouncing in my chair and this time without my admin on my lap.

Plus the argument is false that we can't have Earthquakes except near plate boundaries.

They can happen anywhere on the planet. Some places are more prone to them but that doesn't mean that they can't happen in other areas.

Felt it strongly here in DC. I was at my desk and felt a little vibration. At first we thought it was construction equipment moving around outside - since we're in a ground-floor office, we can really tell when there's like a bulldozer or something going by outside.

But this built up into four, five, six strong shocks. I've been in earthquakes before and know what they feel like. There's a fire exit less than twenty feet from my desk and people were heading towards it, kind of uncertainly, mumbling "should we go out?" Then the lights went out and I could hear ductwork and stuff in the overhead moving. So we popped the door and everyone skeedaddled. For a few seconds I could feel the ground continue to vibrate when I stood still on the sidewalk outside. Anyway, we mustered up at our evacuation station, then milled around smartly for about an hour. Then, having been accounted for, I walked over to the other side of the building to see if "D" had made it out safely. Discovered her in the car, having been told by her management that she could go.

Decided that the day was a wash and came home. No aftershocks yet, but won't be surprised if we get one or two.

Yes, there are fault lines on the east coast. They're nowhere near as active as on the west, but they're here.

That would be the appalachians. An ancient, ancient range, but still a bit of activity.

But..... But........

That doesn't fit in with his conspiracy beliefs......

You're wrecking his world.....

I personally felt nothing here in GA.....except the normal reverberations of my own awesomeness. Feeling an earthquake under that condition is like trying to see a firefly in front of the noonday sun.

I blame Obama.

But any delay from FEMA is Bush's fault.

yeah, folks up in Toronto DEFINITELY felt that.

Actually, there is a new theory that the New Matrid fault is still undergoing after shocks from the earthquake 200 years ago.

I've read that midplate earthquakes can have a very prolonged period of aftershocks that last for decades or even centuries.

So all seismic activity since the then has just been aftershocks of the big one two centuries ago.

Which means no big buildup of stresses.

AP is reporting on the following headlines:

Link

Oh and I forgot to say: Obviously this is Bush's fault.

Downgraded to 5.8 again. And there's been a 2.8 aftershock...

Twitter records the devastation:

My building is all glass and twisted around a bit. We're near Dulles Airport, and the first thing I thought was 'earthquake.' Then I thought, wait a minute, there hasn't been an earthquake like that here in 100 years. Then I thought, DC, blast wave? But everything was beautiful outside, so I was relieved that it was just a 5.8 earthquake.

So, for those that know this stuff, I am very familiar with how earthquakes happen when fault lines are involved. But, besides fat early 90s WWF wrestlers, I have not the foggiest idea how an earthquake can happen in the middle of a plate like where this one happened. Anybody have the skinny on that?

There's not much skinny to find, unfortunately.

Just the earth getting ready for the total magnetic reversal in 2012.

Picard's reaction to the 5.8 earthquake hitting Washington, D.C.

I think I was the only person in Delaware not to have felt it. I was driving back from Wal Mart on my lunch hour and didn't know anything had happened until my wife called me and said "I think we had an earthquake!"

Here I was stocking up on stuff for the hurricane we're supposed to get on Sunday and I'm having to deal with earthquakes instead. The locusts are scheduled for Thursday.

I kept waiting for New Jersey to slide into the Atlantic...

Oh...and BAM!

Some people in Michigan felt it. I didn't.

Oh come on......

Your telling us that you weren't a little upset it wasn't a blast wave?

I had heard that we got a little bump. I didn't feel it at all; but, I did poke my nose in here during the middle of the day JUST TO SEE if Cassandra had retaken the board.

5.8, that is a decent size quake especially when you aren't accustomed to them. Not to mention the building codes in that part of the country are different than they are in states that are prone to quakes.

FEMA has accepted my bid of $3 million to repair this.

The epicenter of the quake has been pin-pointed to a graveyard outside of DC, where all of our Founding Fathers just rolled over in their graves