Earhquake in DC Metro area. What the hell?

[DerVVulfman]

Okay, guys. It looks like a 6.0 Earthquake hit in Virginia, and spread upwards to New York and down to North Carolina. Even Detroit felt it. They evacuated the Pentagon and Capitol. I mean... seriously?

A freight train? Thunder? 'Holy cow ... earthquake!'

WASHINGTON — The largest earthquake ever recorded near the capital rattled Washington, D.C., early Friday, waking many residents but causing no reported damage.

The quake hit at 5:04 a.m. ET with a magnitude of 3.6, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was centered near Rockville, Md., the USGS said.

NBC News reported that the quake was felt in the D.C.-area, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Amy Vaughn, a spokeswoman for USGS, told NBC station WRC that the quake was the largest recorded within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of Washington since a database was created in 1974.

The previous record within that time period was a 2.6 magnitude temblor in 1990.

"So this is pretty significant for your area," Vaughn told WRC-TV.

[DerVVulfman]

Over near the pacific? A lot more often.

Over here in the DC area? Er... first one that I recall. Couldn't help but notice it. Freakin' thing shook my house!

Since it went up to New York, I wonder what some of our staff from there think.

[Jacket]

Well, since you asked so nicely...

The room I sleep in, it's structurally weaker than the rest of the house. It wobbles in medium wind. I woke up just a few minutes before the shake, and was about to get out of bed when the thing came up. At first, I figured it was the wind, as I mentioned it does shake this part of the bedroom. Then realized there's no wind coming through the window. Thought it was the pipes, they too shake the room - oh wait, I don't have heat on, so it can't be the radiator pipes. Subway? Wait, not only do I not hear the noise of a subway, but I don't live over a subway anymore! What's left? "Ha! It's an earthquake!"

I ran downstairs with a smile on my face, the thing only lasted like 45-60 seconds, afterall, and turned on the news. We had a very minor earthquake here a few years ago (cityhall sits right atop a fault line btw). The interesting thing was that I'd find out everyone was a li'l freaked.

They figured, what with all the news lately, that this would be something big. There were questions about a tsunami (here, we are afterall a bunch of islands surrounded by water). Me? Thought none of this, and just thought "Awesome, I finally felt what a li'l earthquake felt like!"

Also, earthquakes happen a lot more than people think. Sure a 5.9 is the strongest to ever hit the Virginia/DC area since records started being kept, but the area has gotten hit a few times. New York City, as I said, was hit not too far ago (mid 90's if I remember correctly), and that wasn't entirely an isolated incident. We have had 8 earthquakes ranging from 7.0 to 7.9 since 2000. Of the scale that hit today (again, 5.9) 661 since 2000. Yeah, six hundred and sixty one. This year alone we have had a minimum of 31.

Let's break down the last 10 or so years.
2001 saw an earthquake in Washington. 2002 saw Alaska get hit, the following year had Alabama, Virginia and Central California. 2004? Illinois. None in 05, but 06? South of Alabama and west of Florida, at the gulf, got hit. As did Hawaii. 2007 saw Alaska and California have earthquakes again. Illinois returns for 2008, and southern Cal comes back. 09 saw S. Cal go again, but 2011 saw Northern California step up. And again, some of the same names continue, earlier this year there was an earthquake in Arkansas, Colorado, Virginia and Utah. Go back a few years, 95 or so, and you saw an event in Texas.

These are all what you would consider "major" earthquakes, however if you include the middle ground, you have Albany this year, as well as a quake in Virginia in 2003. Oh, and speaking of Virginia...

2003 saw a 4.5 quake, May 16th of 2009 saw a 3.0. Guess what happened earlier this year in July? Virginia saw a 3.6. The issue is we aren't part of the pacific ring on this side of things, and where I am there's literally nothing but bedrock. Tremors like this release all the pressure, it doesn't build. It's not that we don't get hit, it's just we've been lucky enough that pressure doesn't normally build and release like it did today, or like it has in India or Japan recently. The incidents yesterday did see yet another earthquake in Virginia, yes, but also saw a weak one in Albany.

We get hit a lot, we're just lucky. Very little that hits us really is anything, like today (for me at least) it was nothing but a cool story. It is the first earthquake I experienced, but that's only because I slept through the last 8 I could have been around for that I know of. And one of them bought a tree down into the apartment I was at at the time.