DC, NY area evacuates after 5.9 quake hits Virginia

I’m sure the corporate media is going to milk this for all it is worth. This is a commercial bonanza for them. The ad-libbing will go on for hours. I was listening to an “eyewitness” on CBS radio on the way home before, (who worked for the station), go into detail about the expression on her dog’s face after the earthquake was over. (Not that this isn’t a human interest story, but because the quake was considered mild they are searching for leads, sometimes too hard.) I’m sure they’ll stay up all night until they find a crack in a foundation or something, and they’ll get right on top of it. http://sibob.org/wordpress/

http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/quake.html

Virginia and the eastern side of the North American continent are in the middle of a tectonic plate. The North American Plate is one of the 15 or so major "chunks" of crust that float on top of the hot mantle. The plate includes both continental crust and heavier (iron- and magnesium-rich) oceanic crust.

The eastern coast of the United States marks the boundary between continental and oceanic crust, but the North American Plate includes both continental and oceanic crust. The Eastern Shore/Virginia Beach are at the edge of the continent, but are not located at the edge of the continental plate. Instead, the eastern edge of the North American Plate is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At that ridge, magma rises slowly and pushes Virginia (and the rest of the North American Plate) towards China, at the rate of about 2-3 centimeters/year.

North American Plate
Source: USGS World Plate Boundaries Animation

In contrast, the far western edge of the North American Plate is near the edge of the North American continent. In Southern California, the western edge of the North American Plate rubs against the eastern edge of Pacific Plate. That boundary is marked by the San Andreas Fault and many other named faults. The North American and Pacific plates are moving in different directions. Earthquakes occur when the pressure to move exceeds the capacity of the rocks to resist motion. Intermittently, the plates "break free" of each other and the edges spring into a new alignment. When the land moves into the new alignment, everything shakes nearby - and buildings, highway bridges, etc. may collapse.

Virginia is not on an edge of a continental plate where sudden, jerking movement occurs regularly; Virginia is in the relatively-stable middle of a plate. That's why Virginia does not experience the large-magnitude earthquakes that affect Los Angeles, Alaska, Haiti, Japan, Chile, or other places that are on a tectonic plate's edge.
__
I don't know, this one by contrast was big. I just got a call from my Mayor stating they are monitoring the situation here as tremors were felt as well.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/

Did you feel it?

Just heard no reported damage to Indian Point Nuclear plant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/washington-dc-earthquake-2011_n_934244....

More information

Today 2:47 PM Lake Anna Nuclear Reactor Reportedly Rated 7th Most "at risk" For Quake Damage: Lake Anna nuclear reactor designed to withstand a 5.9-6.1 mag earthquake, rated by NRC as 7th most "at risk" for earthquake damage, according to this report by People's Alliance For Clean Energy.

Today 2:45 PM 'Muffled Thud' Heard Outside Eisenhower Executive Office Building
HuffPost's Howard Fineman reports: The quake produced an odd muffled thud outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House. The old granite 19th century pile of the "Old EOB" is under renovation, and the tremors evidently shook metal scaffolding that girds the north face of the building to the point where passersby could hear what sounded like construction material falling from one part of the facade to another.

Today 2:44 PM Today's Virginia Earthquake Matches Record
@ dannysullivan : Largest quakes by state. Today's Virginia earthquake matches the record set in 1897 http://t.co/O2bq2ka

Today 2:43 PM No Injuries Reported On D.C. Metrorail
HuffPost's Jason Cherkis reports:

According to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's Twitter feed, there have been no reported injuries or "major damage" on the Metrorail system.

Today 2:43 PM Washington Metrorail Stays Open
HuffPost's Dan Froomkin reports:

Washington's mostly underground Metrorail system is staying open after the earthquake. "Trains are running," a Metro spokesman said. There are significant delays, however, he said, as trains are traveling at a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour until a systemwide track inspection is complete.

Today 2:42 PM Building Collapse Reported In D.C.
@BryanWeaverDC: Building collapse in the 300 block of Pennsylvania Ave SE

Today 2:41 PM 5.9 Magnitude Earthquake In D.C.
From the D.C. Alert system:

"United States Geological Survey reports an earthquake in the Metropolitan Area registering at 5.9 on the Richter Scale. Small aftershocks reported. As safety measure if experiencing please take cover under a desk, table, bed or door frames. Stay clear of windows and other glass. Please stay put. If you are outdoors find areas clear of buildings. Stay tuned to radio and tv news updates."

Today 2:40 PM People Scurry Into Streets In Virginia
Fredericksburg Patch reports: The tremors sent people scurrying into the streets here near the home offices of Fredericksburg Patch on Forbes Street.
snip

Every geologist in the world is trying to access this website right now, so it's a little slow, but this has near-real-time graphs of seismic activity near Virginia Tech (i.e. close to the quake's epicenter) courtesy USGS.

Today 2:35 PM North Anna Nuclear Power Plant
RT @NBCNews: @tomcostellonbc:The North Anna nuclear power plant in Lake Anna, VA automatically shut down both of its reactors. #earthquake

Today 2:32 PM Damage In Virginia
Angela Ratcliff, manager of a Domino's Pizza restaurant in Louisa, Va., very near the epicenter of the quake, said that a Food Lion next door was badly damaged. "Their floor is completely up in the air, and their ceiling came down," she said. "It was pretty bad." But, she said, "so far nobody's hurt."

Ratcliff lives right on the shores of nearby Lake Anna. She called home and her daughter told her the house was OK but all her son's shelves and collectibles fell down.

The epicenter was also about 10 miles from Dominion Energy's North Anna nuclear power plant.

-Dan Froomkin
Today 2:30 PM Quake Effects In Washington, D.C. And Virginia
According to the Washington Post, the quake was strong enough to break windows in Virginia and knocked products off shelves.

Today 2:27 PM Keep The Trains Running
@ eyewitnessnyc : MTA says all of their services are operating normally -NYC Transit, MTA and LIRR. NJTransit also operating normally. #earthquake

Today 2:26 PM Airports Affected
@ msnbctv : Ground stops at major airports including Newark, JFK, and Philadelphia after the #earthquake struck

Today 2:24 PM More On The Quake
The USGS says the earthquake, rated at a 5.9, was centered around Mineral, Virginia.

More From Reuters:

The quake was initially reported at 5.8 magnitude.

The quake had a very shallow depth of 0.6 miles.
Today 2:18 PM Or Not...
@ CNBC : NYMEX has been evacuated in the aftermath of the East Coast earthquake

Today 2:17 PM Business As Usual
@ CNBC : NYSE says all systems operating normally after earthquake; no plans to evacuate the building

Today 2:15 PM White House, Pentagon Briefly Evacuated
Media is reporting that the White House, Capitol and Pentagon were briefly evacuated after the quake.

Today 2:11 PM From Quebec City To North Carolina
The tremors were felt as far south as North Carolina and as far north as Quebec City.

Today 2:08 PM Evacuations
Buildings in affected cities were evacuated. There are reports that the Pentagon and New York's City Hall have been evacuated.

In Toronto the shaking lasted approximately 30 seconds. Our colleagues at Huffington Post in New York reported that their Manhattan offices were also affected.

Today 2:03 PM Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia Affected
The shaking could be felt in Toronto and other cities as well.

The U.S. geological survey is reporting the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 and was centred near Mineral, Virginia. The epicentre is about 100 miles from Washington, D.C.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/twitter-explodes-as-5-9-magnitude-eart...
After a 5.9 magnitude earthquake rattles much of the East Coast, Twitter once again proves itself to be the go-to source for breaking news.

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocked much of the East Coast today, according to the US Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quake was located in near Mineral, Virginia, which is in the middle of the state. Tremors of the quake were felt more than 300 miles away, in New York City and towns in northern New York state and elsewhere.

(Your reporter lives about two hours north of New York City, and I felt it here.)

Due to its relatively close proximity to Washington D.C., both the Pentagon and the Capitol Building, where pictures reportedly fell off the walls, were evacuated. Some firms on Wall Street also halted trading and evacuated due to the quake. So far, no major injuries or fatalities have been reported.

As of this writing, Verizon cell phone voice service was down for the greater New York area, though text messages were going through fine.

The USGS originally reported that the quake measured 5.8 on the Richter scale, but later upped the count to 5.9 — 10 times more powerful than a 5.8 quake.

The largest recorded earthquake before today’s was a mere 3.6 in magnitude.

Of course, the most dynamic way to see the response to the quake was on Twitter, which, from your reporter’s observations, erupted with tweets mere seconds after Earth’s crust halted its violent shaking.
___
One good use of social media.