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Merged 5.9 Quake Hits Virginia

My experience in CT shows how you can confuse cause and effect. I just pulled into a parking spot at the supermarket and wanted to hear the last of an interview I was listening to so I turned my engine off but left the battery on. A woman in the space next to me happened to start her car at the moment of the earthquake and my mind immediately drew the conclusion that my car was shaking in a manner I was unaccustomed to because of her car. It took about three seconds for me to realize that was bulloney because her car was on my driver side and my window was down and neither her exhaust nor engine was noisy. By the time I gave it real thought the tremor was over and I gave it no additional thought until I went into the supermarket and told I had to wait to enter any aisles until the inventory that fell off the shelves was reshelved because of the earthquake I didn't even realize I had just experienced.
 
Before we closed, I understand that someone called our telephone reference service and asked if we were having an earthquake.

No. I'm not joking.
 
I felt it up in Pennsylvania. Quite odd. I felt my desk chair moving slightly on its own accord, and my pet cockatiel decided that it was a good a time as any to freak out and do laps around the room.
 
We had after-shock a bit ago. Pretty tame, not much vibration but heard the rumble. Only lasted about 10 sec.
 
Who would have thought my first earthquake experience would happen while I was sitting in my office in Arlington, Virginia? :boggled:

It was strange - things started to move and I thought, "Is this an earthquake? In DC? Was it a rumble from an explosion? WAS it an earthquake?" Bizarre. We all had to evacuate and stand around outside until they decided we could go back in and get our stuff. Then, of course, came the worst and most horrifying part: the drive home!!!
 
Sabretooth said:
[OT] I live just outside of Buffalo...but I've been to Falconer a bunch of times. I used to work on the Mayville side of the lake at the Boy Scout camp over there and spent a lot of time in Lakewood/Jamestown. It's nice to see people on here from the area. [/OT]

Anyway, being near Buffalo, I didn't feel it. But then, I work near a rock quarry and they do a lot of blasting...so I probably just ignored any strange vibrations anyway.
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Awesome. I'm sure you've done the walk across the road to get to the lake, just to dodge Institute people. Mayville is beautiful.

volcano said:
Some swaying can be good-- it means your house is flexing to absorb some of the rocking & rolling :) A totally static structure (like a brick house*) that doesn't sway is more likely to crack & crumble.

I live in a wooden 1-story house in an earthquake-prone region. When a really big quake hits, I fully expect my house to sway and fall off of its foundation, but hopefully won't collapse. My office (in a concrete building that isn't up to modern earthquake codes) will probably crumble and crush all of its occupants...

*Now I've got that song stuck in my head.
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Newtons Bit said:
A single story wood building can sway (at the roof line) several inches or more without incurring any damage to the structure. You will probably find cracks in any finishing surface (paint, tile, etc) attached to the walls with that much sway, however.
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Thanks guys. It's a two story wood building. It does have some relatively massive wood beams running the entire height of the building, but all on the exterior walls. There is no load baring structure running up the middle of the house, but we have pillar jacked the center of the floor in the basement. Most of the floors are based or entirely made of these 1 1/2" by 6" planks with some roughly 6"x8" cross beams, one of which we have reinforced with a steel under-beam. We could probably jack the entire house up on one side and slide it down the hill intact.

But the effect is a lot of sway, sometimes in the wind.
 
Alt+F4 said:
A reporter on our CBS affiliate just said, "I remember vividly where I was when the quake struck". Really, something that happened just over 3 hours ago. :rolleyes:
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I cracked up because the CNN reporters were having an orgasm over "breaking news that interrupted breaking news". :rolleyes:
 
Checkmite said:
I heard a legend about one of those particular earthquakes that said near the epicenter you could see the compression waves moving across the ground toward the horizon.
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In the Nisqually Quake I sat on the ground outside and it literally rolled up and down like waves would. My thought was, this quake must be bad someplace else to be making these nice rolling waves here.
 
Traveler Steve said:
Yep, I live in Northern VA and definitely felt it. Shook some water out of the cup on my desk and definitely rattled the building. Quite an interesting feeling - I've lived here all my life and obviously am not as blase about it as the west coasters.....
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I'm a west coaster and we are not as blase as some people pretend. You never know when that first jolt is just the beginning and you never know if it was worse nearby where other people you know might have been.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
In the Nisqually Quake I sat on the ground outside and it literally rolled up and down like waves would. My thought was, this quake must be bad someplace else to be making these nice rolling waves here.
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I've been in a number of quakes including today's, but never outside. It must be quite interesting to actually see waves going across the ground. The waves really moved slowly enough to see them?
 
Brown said:
How long before some semi-prominent lame-brain says that God was sending Washington a message?

What message could that be, if (a) God missed Washington (oops!) and (b) the only confirmed quake damage so far is to the National Cathedral?
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Just go to the comment section on any online news story about the quake and you'll find plenty of Bible-beating loons proclaiming this to be God's judgment, yadda yadda...

What's really nice is to see the comments from people reacting to these idiots :)
 
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