Earthquake in DC area

[BAC]

It was felt in my area as well...not by me.  I was driving at the time.  My sister in CT called and said they evacuated her building.  She felt it.

[tombogan03884]

I think Cris Christie just jumped into the race.

[alfsauve]

Here's what it looks like from Cleveland's Museum of Natural History.   Where the solid line stops on the right hand side and all those real faint squiggles are.

[crusader rabbit]

5+ is nothing...

With 35+ years in SoCal (before I escaped)  I've  gotta agree with TAB on this one.  I can generate a 5+ after a night of pickled eggs and home-made beer.  Sheesh...

[Pathfinder]

Time to get the T-Shirt making gear fired up.

"I Survived the Quake of '11"

Two markets, D.C. area and Denver area.  ----- So Far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's that whole Ides of March have come - but not yet gone thing! 

[Sponsor]

[Timothy]

With 35+ years in SoCal (before I escaped)  I've  gotta agree with TAB on this one.  I can generate a 5+ after a night of pickled eggs and home-made beer.  Sheesh...

No argument here, I lived across the street from the Eel River in N. CA....the river bed IS the San Andreas fault line where it enters the continent from the Pacific.  We had routine shakes of over 5 for the two years I live out there.  They eventually had to abandon the Navy base on the cliff outside of Ferndale due to several very large shakes in the mid 90's.

When I was there, we had to monitor a crack in the floor of the operations room to determine if the cliff was going to fracture off into the Pacific!

Good times, good times!   

[justbill]

I work in Greensburg, PA and was on the 5th floor of the building in which I work. It was rather exciting for a non-Californian like myself and my co-workers. My wife was home with the kids and didn't notice anything at ground level.

[mkm]

Apparently, tw overnighted that dragonfruit plant to DC.   Who suggested that again?

[blackwolfe]

Supposedly it was felt along the Sunset Coast of Michigan, but I didn't feel a thing at work.

Of the 4 quakes that have hit my area that I can recall I have only felt one.  The other 3 besides this one I think were caused by the New Madrid Seismic Zone.  The NMSZ has been the cause of some of the biggest quakes in the US and if the big hits there again both St. Louis and Memphis will probably sustain tremendous damage.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811-1812.php

Info below is from the link above.  More at link.


Historic Earthquakes
New Madrid 1811-1812 Earthquakes
Earthquake Summary
Images
Damage Photos from the USGS Photographic Library
Isoseismal Map
Overview
Eyewithness Accounts
New Madrid Seismic Zone Links
Report of the Independent Expert Panel on New Madrid Seismic Zone Earthquake Hazards
Earthquake Hazard in the New Madrid Seismic Zone Remains a Concern
Earthquake Summary
Three Main Shocks
December 16, 1811 - Magnitude ~7.7
January 23, 1812 - Magnitude ~ 7.5
February 7, 1812 - Magnitude ~ 7.7


A Robust Aftershock Sequence
Aftershocks are Earthquakes!
December 16, 1811 - Magnitude ~7.0
Six aftershocks in the first two days in the range of M5.5 to M6.3. Hundreds of quakes felt into 1813.



It's happened before 1811-1812
The geologic record of pre-1811 earthquakes reveals that the New Madrid seismic zone has repeatedly produced sequences of major earthquakes, including several of magnitude 7 to 8, over the past 4,500 years.
The New Madrid Seismic Zone is at Significant Risk for Damaging Earthquakes

 



This sequence of three very large earthquakes is usually referred to as the New Madrid earthquakes, after the Missouri town that was the largest settlement on the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri and Natchez, Mississippi. On the basis of the large area of damage (600,000 square kilometers), the widespread area of perceptibility (5,000,000 square kilometers), and the complex physiographic changes that occurred, the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 rank as some of the largest in the United States since its settlement by Europeans. They were by far the largest east of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S. and Canada. The area of strong shaking associated with these shocks is two to three times as large as that of the 1964 Alaska earthquake and 10 times as large as that of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Because there were no seismographs in North America at that time, and very few people in the New Madrid region, the estimated magnitudes of this series of earthquakes vary considerably and depend on modern researchers' interpretations of journals, newspaper reports, and other accounts of the ground shaking and damage. The magnitudes of the three principal earthquakes of 1811-1812 described below are the preferred values taken from research involved with producing the 2008 USGS National Seismic Hazard Map (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1128/).

The first principal earthquake, M7.7, occurred at about 2:15 am (local time) in northeast Arkansas on December 16, 1811. The second principal shock, M7.5, occurred in Missouri on January 23, 1812, and the third, M7.7, on February 7, 1812, along the Reelfoot fault in Missouri and Tennessee. The earthquake ground shaking was not limited to these principal main shocks, as there is evidence for a fairly robust aftershock sequence. The first and largest aftershock occurred on December 16, 1811 at about 7:15 am. At least three other large aftershocks are inferred from historical accounts on December 16 and 17. These three events are believed to range between M6.0 and 6.5 in size and to be located in Arkansas and Missouri. This would make a total of seven earthquakes of magnitude M6.0-7.7 occurring in the period December 16, 1811 through February 7, 1812. In total, Otto Nuttli reported more than 200 moderate to large aftershocks in the New Madrid region between December 16, 1811, and March 15, 1812: ten of these were greater than about 6.0; about one hundred were between M5.0 and 5.9; and eighty-nine were in the magnitude 4 range. Nuttli also noted that about eighteen hundred earthquakes of about M3.0 to 4.0 during the same period.

[ellis4538]

I live in NE Ohio and was upstairs @ my computer when I felt it!  We live near RR tracks and I thought a train was going thru but then realized it was a very different movement.  Much more than usual.  Didn't think anything of it until it was mentioned on the news.

Hope everyone is safe.

Richard