Central VA Earthquake

Christenson · 2011-08-23, 18:23

I was all of 20 miles from the epicenter....the building started shaking with a noise that sounded like what you hear when a jet engine is taking off at the airport...a rumbling slowly rising and falling in amplitude for about 10 seconds.

Since there's a large crane outside, I began to wonder if it was falling or something.

Nothing like the last earthquake I was through...that one sounded like someone dropped an empty dumpster on the pavement just outside the building.

KingKurly · 2011-08-23, 18:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christenson

I was all of 20 miles from the epicenter....the building started shaking with a noise that sounded like what you hear when a jet engine is taking off at the airport...a rumbling slowly rising and falling in amplitude for about 10 seconds.

Since there's a large crane outside, I began to wonder if it was falling or something.

Nothing like the last earthquake I was through...that one sounded like someone dropped an empty dumpster on the pavement just outside the building.

So do you think our lake house in Mineral (Lake Anna) is still there? We felt the quake in Annapolis pretty heavy, and from what I understand, it got felt from the Carolinas to Connecticut, and out west to Michigan!

science_man_88 · 2011-08-23, 18:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingKurly

So do you think our lake house in Mineral (Lake Anna) is still there? We felt the quake in Annapolis pretty heavy, and from what I understand, it got felt from the Carolinas to Connecticut, and out west to Michigan!

yeah actually me and my mom found it on the news before I found this thread on here and is supposedly could be felt in places in Canada, and possibly tilted a building in Boston. magnitude said to be 5.9

NBtarheel_33 · 2011-08-23, 18:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingKurly

So do you think our lake house in Mineral (Lake Anna) is still there? We felt the quake in Annapolis pretty heavy, and from what I understand, it got felt from the Carolinas to Connecticut, and out west to Michigan!

Between Hagerstown, MD and Frederick, MD here. About 30 seconds of the house shaking, intense enough to make us think about heading outside (at first, we thought the construction workers working on the house were just pounding too hard). Nothing fell off the walls or anything like that. There seems to be isolated reports of worse damage here and there, e.g. The National Cathedral and Mount Vernon in the immediate DC area.

mdettweiler · 2011-08-23, 19:04

Say, I thought I felt something up here (central/western NY area) about an hour or two ago. It was, of course, very small in magnitude by the time it got here, but I do remember thinking "huh, it almost feels like a very tiny earthquake went by" based on my recollection of past such occurrences. About a year or so ago we had a somewhat larger one (having started somewhere in PA, IIRC), which was strong enough to knock some things off shelves in houses in my area--not my own house, but those of the many people who called in to the local radio station to share their mostly identical "earthquake stories".

davieddy · 2011-08-23, 20:47

Mars Bar sustained only minor damage

Michael Palin

science_man_88 · 2011-08-23, 21:11

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:09L_2011_5day.gif looks to show hurricane irene crossing the plate boundary or just off the plate boundary today could they be in sync ?

Christenson · 2011-08-24, 02:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingKurly

So do you think our lake house in Mineral (Lake Anna) is still there? We felt the quake in Annapolis pretty heavy, and from what I understand, it got felt from the Carolinas to Connecticut, and out west to Michigan!

I understand the Louisa Food Lion had all the food hit the floor....but everything seems in place here; went out in Charlottesville tonight and things seemed normal. The guy bolting girders outside the building dropped his wrench off a bolt, my mom (in Cincinnati) fell for no apparent reason getting out of a canoe at the same moment as the earthquake.

There was an aftershock tonight, but it was not felt on the eastern side of Charlottesville.

As for Irene setting it off, SM88, we've had much worse hurricanes much closer to (like on top of) Louisa before, with no such results.

And if we want to soapbox it, the feeling was like armageddon....suddenly whatever we were doing wasn't very important anymore, and we were all paniced a bit afterwards.

KingKurly · 2011-08-24, 05:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christenson

I understand the Louisa Food Lion had all the food hit the floor....but everything seems in place here; went out in Charlottesville tonight and things seemed normal. The guy bolting girders outside the building dropped his wrench off a bolt, my mom (in Cincinnati) fell for no apparent reason getting out of a canoe at the same moment as the earthquake.

There was an aftershock tonight, but it was not felt on the eastern side of Charlottesville.

As for Irene setting it off, SM88, we've had much worse hurricanes much closer to (like on top of) Louisa before, with no such results.

And if we want to soapbox it, the feeling was like armageddon....suddenly whatever we were doing wasn't very important anymore, and we were all paniced a bit afterwards.

We checked in with a nice lady on the community association in our neighborhood in/near Mineral; she mentioned the same news about the Food Lion and apparently CVS had similar problems. She took a quick trip to the house for us, took a walk around it, and said there was no obvious signs of damage from the outside.

Yes I was at the office and everyone else was very worried, but I was calm for some reason. I was in the upper floors of McBride Hall on Virginia Tech campus during a (much smaller) earthquake, and I do remember the smaller one that happened at like 5AM about a year or so ago (I think that one was north of DC). The one on VT campus was so small that I only noticed it because the water in the toilet was swaying. The one about a year ago was very loud but had almost no movement.

Anyway, this one, I recognized it for what it was and then just calmly observed. The earth was shaking rather vigorously, I remember seeing all the monitors and laptops (that people left open) swinging. Thankfully, no damage -- other than perhaps some peoples' ability to sleep soundly tonight.

USGS has reported multiple aftershocks, two were just an hour or two later and were less than 3 in magnitude, and one was around 8 or 9PM (local time, for anyone else reading this message) and it was a little stronger, but still nothing compared to the initial one. The aftershocks are (so far?) not affecting the surrounding areas; I have not felt a thing since the initial event.

For anyone wondering whether you are feeling an aftershock or if it is just your imagination: set a glass of water on a table. If the water is not shaking, you are imagining it.

cheesehead · 2011-08-24, 08:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingKurly

it got felt from the Carolinas to Connecticut, and out west to Michigan!

... beyond Michigan. Folks on upper floors of Milwaukee highrises distinctly felt it -- swaying for 15 seconds.

Christenson · 2011-08-27, 04:23

It's definitely, surely, the apocalypse!!!! Hurricane Irene will be here tomorrow!!!! (We'll see if I can keep the hunt going; a class re-union in Richmond has been canceled).

P.S. Anyone have a car to sell, on the low end, near central VA?

2011-08-23, 18:23	#1
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5×359 Posts	Central VA Earthquake I was all of 20 miles from the epicenter....the building started shaking with a noise that sounded like what you hear when a jet engine is taking off at the airport...a rumbling slowly rising and falling in amplitude for about 10 seconds. Since there's a large crane outside, I began to wonder if it was falling or something. Nothing like the last earthquake I was through...that one sounded like someone dropped an empty dumpster on the pavement just outside the building.

2011-08-23, 20:47	#6
davieddy "Lucan" Dec 2006 England 14512₈ Posts	Cycling accident Mars Bar sustained only minor damage Michael Palin Last fiddled with by davieddy on 2011-08-23 at 20:48

2011-08-23, 21:11	#7
science_man_88 "Forget I exist" Jul 2009 Dartmouth NS 10000011101100₂ Posts	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:09L_2011_5day.gif looks to show hurricane irene crossing the plate boundary or just off the plate boundary today could they be in sync ? Last fiddled with by science_man_88 on 2011-08-23 at 21:12

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2011-08-23, 19:04	#5
mdettweiler A Sunny Moo Aug 2007 USA 6,263 Posts	Say, I thought I felt something up here (central/western NY area) about an hour or two ago. It was, of course, very small in magnitude by the time it got here, but I do remember thinking "huh, it almost feels like a very tiny earthquake went by" based on my recollection of past such occurrences. About a year or so ago we had a somewhat larger one (having started somewhere in PA, IIRC), which was strong enough to knock some things off shelves in houses in my area--not my own house, but those of the many people who called in to the local radio station to share their mostly identical "earthquake stories".

2011-08-27, 04:23	#11
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5·359 Posts	It's definitely, surely, the apocalypse!!!! Hurricane Irene will be here tomorrow!!!! (We'll see if I can keep the hunt going; a class re-union in Richmond has been canceled). P.S. Anyone have a car to sell, on the low end, near central VA?