August 23, 2011

Earthquake!

In D.C.
Reports are coming in that an earthquake just hit Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland. The U.S. Geological Survey said an earthquake of a 5.8 magnitude hit Virginia near the town of Mineral...
Lots of Tweeting.

And last night:
The largest natural earthquake in Colorado in more than a century struck Monday night ... with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3...

108 comments:

David said...

Bush's fault!!!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Felt it here in NJ for about 20 seconds..

My first thought was that somebody was having sex like in the movies.

Triangle Man said...

The USGS page here has it at 5.9.

Anonymous said...

I blame Gobal Warming..

Anonymous said...

David stole my line ... I blame Bush!

Original Mike said...

Obama did this just to provide shovel-ready jobs.

Original Mike said...

So, like what magnitude quake is the Washington Monument rated for?

Sal said...

I felt it. Totally awesome.

Shouting Thomas said...

Yes, I felt it.

SMASH AUTHORITY said...

I WAS TRYING TO RITE SOMETHING BUT COULNT THINK OF ANYTHING WOTH WRITING
---THECAPSLOCKSCREAMERTROLL---

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

My cell phone network seems to be down.. not roaming.. I mean completely down!

..lets put them exclamation point to use!!

edutcher said...

East Coast earthquakes come about one every decade, but usually not this strong.

I think Little Zero has finally made God mad.

chickelit said...

California has successfully outsourced earthquakes.

Is there nothing Jerry Brown cannot do?

TWM said...

What I did not know, but what is being reported is that Virginia and those parts get earthquakes now and again - in the 2. range.

chickelit said...

David said...
Bush's fault!!!

Awesome double entendre!

Palladian said...

Scary as hell. Felt here in Brooklyn.

DADvocate said...

Felt it here in Cincinnati. Some buildings evacuated. Ours did partially. I stayed inside. At first I thought maybe I'd had too many beers for lunch.

pm317 said...

Yep, the whole house shook and shook for quite a few minutes (felt that way, anyway). It is a nice sunny day but it felt like the sound of gusts of wind in a major storm. USGS is saying 5.9. We had another small one within the last year in the middle of the night.

Paddy O said...

"California has successfully outsourced earthquakes."

ha! Love it.

The Dude said...

Felt it here in NC. It was barely perceptible, maybe equivalent to to a 3.5 to 4.0. Having been through many in CA I knew immediately what it was, but it was barely noteworthy, other than it was my first east coast earthquake.

William T. Sherman said...

Felt by friends in Toronto and N. Carolina.

bagoh20 said...

"The largest natural earthquake in Colorado"

What?

Did we just discover a geologic conspiracy?

pm317 said...

my cell phone is not working either..

I'm Full of Soup said...

I was indisposed and thought my house was about to collapse. But was relieved by the thought Obama and the WPA would rebuild my house.

DADvocate said...

Uh oh. We have a tsunamie warning for the Ohio River.

chuck b. said...

I think Chris Christie just jumped in to the race.


someone else's joke.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There were dogs barking.. before during and after.

Bush Fault!!! was magnificent.

Hizzle said...

Largest "natural" earthquake in CO? Are there "unnatural" earthquakes?

bagoh20 said...

In L.A., we crap bigger than that.

DADvocate said...

tsunami that is.

DADvocate said...

In L.A., we crap bigger than that.

That explains a lot.

Naomi said...

You didn't say where in Colorado. Should I be worried about not hearing from family, or just figure it wasn't that big of a deal?

Anonymous said...

If not Bush's fault, must be global warming.

Freeman Hunt said...

I think Chris Christie just jumped in to the race.

I'm desperate enough that for a second I thought, "He did?!!!!"

kjbe said...

Others felt, here in our building in Madison. I did not.

Freeman Hunt said...

Countdown to someone saying it's the result of fracking....

coketown said...

Even God has had enough.

Naomi said...

Or I could just click on the link you provided.

X said...

hey marxist farmer, love your website. where is the collective farm located? I need to pick up a few items from your abilities according to my needs.

Paul said...

But no tsunami off Martha's Vineyard, right?

Bummer.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

You didn't say where in Colorado.

Centered in Va.. felt in Colorado.. I would make a call.

Bender said...

Here in Arlington, Virginia --

At first, I thought my neighbor above me was stomping her feet. Then I thought maybe her washing machine was off-kilter. Then the floor and walls of the entire building were rumbling and I knew it was a major quake (major for Virginia). I was concerned enough to get in the doorway in case the ceiling came down.

TWM said...

"Concerns the Washington Monument may be tilting?" Whoa if true.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Countdown to someone saying it's the end of the world coming....

Curious George said...

Barack went for one of Michelle's tamales.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Holt it.. Aperently there were two quakes.

Curious George said...

Lem said...
Countdown to someone saying it's the end of the world coming....

as we know it

I'm Full of Soup said...

Does standard homeowner's insursnce cover earthquake damage? I could use a new TV. Heh.

TWM said...

"Does standard homeowner's insursnce cover earthquake damage? I could use a new TV. Heh."

Not usually, it's a rider.

Valentine Smith said...

Man, all the networks are running coverage. What horseshit. Now, if the faultline that runs under City Hall had swallowed the building that would be a story.

Or a sinkhole. Yeah better for the rest of us. A sinkhole. That's the ticket.

Valentine Smith said...

JFK airport closed. When did we turn into a nation of pussies?

Nobody even thinks they have to act like men.

FEH

Lincolntf said...

Pretty cool 10 seconds here in NC. Cabinet doors started rattling, I froze and just listened for a second, trying to figure out if something mechanical in the house was going haywire. I looked directly at the doors of the cabinets on either side of the room and saw that they were both rattling equally, coming open an inch and then closing, repeat... Now I think earthquake, and rush to the back patio door. The shaking (more like a vibration communicated through my feet) stopped before I got to the door, where I could see the swimming pool clearly. The water was sloshing back and forth, back and forth, in a way that it never does. Did a quick scan of the house and 'hood, didn't see anything awry. Hope it was just as harmless elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

It was pretty strong here in a skyscraper in Philadelphia. I was bouncing up and down in my chair (not up in the air just lightly up and down), and the pendulum lights were swinging around.

Michael K said...

Remember that Barry Goldwater suggested that the east coast just float out to sea. Prescient ?

Curious George said...

Obama will do anything for "shovel ready" jobs.

Balfegor said...

Gave me a bit of a fright here in DC. First thought was that it must have been an explosion or something, as it couldn't possibly be an earthquake. But it was over quickly and I'm not too high up in the building here. This year has been a bad earthquake year for me -- first in Japan, now in the US.

Cedarford said...

My thoughts were that if it was DC, 5.8 just wasn't big enough. Like 9.2, thousands of Federal buildings collapsed with hundreds of thousands of lawyers, regulation-writers, and taxers feared dead inside. K-Street lobby HQ's burning. Pentagon and Smithsonian miraculously intact..Black looters ramapaging the streets.

The movie "Independence Day" was better.

Valentine Smith said...

For God's sake, they evacuated the Pentagon!!!

Man, this nation is in deep, deep shit.

BISkita said...

The quake in Colorado last night was outside of Trinidad in Southern CO - at a magnitued of 5.3, it was the strongest since 1973, when a 5.7 quake hit the area. Which is certainly *within* a century, but not in *more than* a century.

Original Mike said...

"Strong quake in D.C.: Stock market soars."

radar said...

I felt in here in Madison---Connecticut. That is 582 miles from the epicenter. I was able to locate the realtime earthquake info on my iPhone and call my dad in Virginia (134 miles from epicenter) with details within 5 minutes of the quake. Amazing times we live in.

edutcher said...

Lem said...

Holt it.. Aperently there were two quakes.

Maybe Little Zero is creating those extra states...

Valentine Smith said...

For God's sake, they evacuated the Pentagon!!!

According to Insta, they haven't. Some people ran out on their own, but everyone's back in.

Heart_Collector said...

Even the earth is sick of Obama.

Valentine Smith said...

When I was a lad an airliner landed in pieces on 7th Ave in Brooklyn. Never forget the tail section sitting pretty much intact right in the middle of the Avenue. The Pillar of Fire Baptist church gone up in flames. Hundreds dead.

Now that was a story. If that happened today the government would send 10,000 social workers to do counseling. People who couldn't scratch their asses and talk at the same time clucking away sympathetically, throwing acronyms and drugs at you. PTSD PTSD have an SSRI, have an SSRI.

Stick your goofballs. We were tough in those days.

Henry said...

Hizzle says: "Largest "natural" earthquake in CO? Are there "unnatural" earthquakes?"

The answer is yes, there are unnatural earthquakes, and they are almost always caused by underground nuclear explosions. There was one, named RULISON, in Colorado on 10 Sept. 1969. Yield 40 kt, earthquake magnitude 5.3.

traditionalguy said...

Damn, that Rick Perry sure is powerful. Washington is less important already.

Washingtonians with their northern Virginian second homes will flee to the Texas hills where it's not cloudy all day, or is that Oklahoma.

Bender said...

That's right Val, we're all a bunch of limp-wristed wimps. Nevermind that it was strong enough here in D.C. to displace and/or rupture gas lines and water pipes, leading to reports of gas leaks at Terminal A at National Airport and water pipes bursting at the Pentagon.

If they were real men, they would all simply ignore the potentially catastrophic dangers from such damage.

Titus said...

I bet there were a bunch of bouncing tits.

That would be hot.

Tits.

Phil 314 said...

My son in DC said it wasn't much but generated a lot of "chaos"

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

My phone is back.

Henry said...

BlSkita, USGS lists no M=5.7 eqrthquake in Colorado in 1973. In fact, the only previous natural earthquakes in Colorado that equal or exceed the magnitude of today's M=5.3 was an M=5.3 event near Denver in 1967 and an M=6.6 event in 1882. The latter was very poorly located.

Mumpsimus said...

Fracking!

Will said...

While underground nukes can cause earthquakes, I think the unnatural earthquakes they refer to are the ones caused by the deep-injection well at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in the 1960's. The USGS has a summary here. There were a bunch of 5.0-5.3 quakes that could be traced to the well.

Old RPM Daddy said...

Was outside our building in Arlington when it hit. I just thought I'd lost my balance or something. When I saw surrounding buildings emptying out, I kind of figured out what had happened. Must have been much scarier for folks on the upper floors. Still at work, and not even trying to go home right now -- I'll be the freeways are a parking lot.

gadfly said...

Where is the Environmental Protection Agency when you need them?

Perhaps they need to establish communication with God?

Curious George said...

My first thought was "Thank god America's Politico is in Nepal."

WV: watendic can't decide on one of the dozens of "Titus" jokes I thought of so just do your own.

Titus said...

There better be some videos of women in the streets during this Earthquake. Because if there is, there is bound to be bouncing Tits.

Tits.

rhhardin said...

I didn't notice it in Central Ohio. Maybe I was scything the lawn.

But nothing that would have fallen over has fallen over in the house.

I deduced an Ohio earthquake once when a tape write ring fell off the door of a tape drive in the 70s, and then I read about the earthquake later.

So far Ohio has been a natural event disappointment.

rhhardin said...

If the Washington Monument is tilting, it could be a tourist attraction.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Cleveland Rocks rh

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If the Washington Monument is tilting, it could be a tourist attraction.

Rh Rocks!!!

lemondog said...

2nd EQ at 3:20pm in VA 2.2 mag.

Tom from Virginia said...

Nothing is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

aronamos said...

I was in DC, on the 11th floor of a building (no building in DC is taller than that) ... quite disturbing! Luckily no damage at home other than some frames broken when pictures were tossed off a wall. It was quite scary.

wv: peyownl, what you don't want to fall over on you during the erthkwake.

Christopher said...

And with one single 4 second tremor news of Libya almost entirely disappears from the airwaves.

Original Mike said...

So, does the market plunge tomorrow after it becomes clear that D.C. is still standing?

Original Mike said...

"...this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"

I think the planet just weighed in.

AllenS said...

When the earthquake hit, obama missed a 6 inch putt. He immediately blamed Bush.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Shake Rattle And Roll

traditionalguy said...

Titus will be excited. First the tits bounce all over the Eastern Seaboard, and next Irene will Clouds on steroids.

BISkita said...

Henry: thanks for the info. That 1973 statistic was attributed to "U.S. Geological Service geophysicist Amy Vaughn" in the Colorado Springs paper, and also reported by Bloomberg News. Whether it is true or not, and the last quake to equal this quake was in 1967, it's still *within* a century. Which is commentary on the NYT, nothing else.

Amy Schley said...

Every time there's an earthquake, I remember this video: A Quake!

foxlets14 said...

A commenter at Gateway Pundit reports "Epicenter was situated at the convergence of Bush’s Fault, Congress’s Fault, Teaparty Fault, and Itsnotmy Fault."

Dust Bunny Queen said...

This is why I have my collection of art deco pottery double sticky taped on the bottom to the shelving, which is also securely attached to the wall.

Learned the hard way that it doesn't take much of a jolt to bounce those fragile things off of the shelves.

If the walls fall down, who cares about the pottery anyway.

Carol_Herman said...

Oh, the timing of it!

Cyrus Vance was up on stage, starting out to claim how he's more honest than Snow White, when the building gave a shake. And, the entire audience was told to evacuate.

Wow. To think we'd have heard how sperm of "others" were found in the Sofitel's hotel room. (Just in case you didn't that that was a shot to silence the hotel folk!)

While I'm sure at least Diallo thought the earthquake's signature was a sign from God.

The Daily Beast has the video.

Peter V. Bella said...

Armageddon was yesterday. Today we have a problem.

AllenS said...

What if the earth parted, and on the east coast, from the Hudson river, everything slid into the Atlantic ocean, and then everything on the west coast slid into the ocean from the big fault line. How cool would that be?

I'm thinking Republican domination forever.

Original Mike said...

I read a Sci Fi story many years ago where the big California earthquake happened and everything east of the San Andreas slipped into the ocean.

PaulV said...

I am about 34 miles away. It happened just as I turned up AC. Turned it off but it still was shaking. Epicenter located between Mineral and Cuckoo, VA.

MamaM said...

Titus will be excited. First the tits bounce all over the Eastern Seaboard, and next Irene will(create) Clouds on steroids.

While traditionalguy's consistency and grace are what I most appreciate, his moments of humor often make me laugh. Lem's too.

Yet to be seen: multiplying loaves and hogs leaping off cliffs.

Irene said...

"Obama interrupts golf game for earthquake briefing."

Awwww. He's so competent.

Heart_Collector said...

AllenS said...
What if the earth parted, and on the east coast, from the Hudson river, everything slid into the Atlantic ocean, and then everything on the west coast slid into the ocean from the big fault line. How cool would that be?

I'm thinking Republican domination forever.




Dude, what about me?

BJM said...

5.8? Pffft! Piece of cake...I'm sitting above the San Andreas and the Hayward.

HT said...

I was in an apt. building on Saturday with 15 floors so I don't know where someone is getting their info that no DC building is taller than 11 floors. There's another office building on Pa ave that I was in last week with 13 floors. (Kills me that no one takes out the 13th floor. Where I'm from that is skipped, so it goes 12, 14, etc etc)...

Some damage to buildings incl the National Cathedral and a couple of church spires in NW. Also the Ecuadoran Embassy. Fortunately no one was hurt when part of a building fell in Vienna, Virginia. The good thing about that is that it highlights poor building practices.

If anyone has an idea of what we in apartment buildings should look for, please share!! We're all ignorant over here.

The Dude said...

Best building to be in during an earthquake is a 1 story frame structure, which is better if there are any bolts holding the framing to foundation.

WV: oplexone - there you have it.

BJM said...

@HT

If anyone has an idea of what we in apartment buildings should look for, please share!! We're all ignorant over here.

Buildings with underground parking, aka "soft stories" are especially vulnerable ...even massive parking structures failed in the Nortridge quake.

Apt buildings with parking or garages directly under the apts. pancake. This was a problem during the '89 Loma Prieta quake in SF's Marina districtwhere soil liquidifcation was severe...think house of cards. You may recall the collapse of the 880 Cypress viaduct...and in the '95 Kobe quake freeways collapsed onto homes so you might want to avoid living near els, double decker freeways, and exchanges too.

Be sure your home is bolted to the foundation and sheer walls have been installed. Here's some usful advice...the most rudimentary tips that are often overlooked are to strap your gas water heater to the wall studs and chain a wrench to the gas shutoff valve so you don't have to look for one and know where the mains water valve is located. Also keep a flashlight and pair of sturdy shoes under your bed so you don't cut your feet in the dark and of course never hang anything above the bed.

Hope that helps.

aronamos said...

HT, the 11 floors was hyperbole but the law is real:

The Heights of Buildings Act of 1910 (DC ST § 6-601) was an Act of Congress passed by the 61st United States Congress on June 1, 1910 to limit the height of buildings in Washington, D.C.[1] The original act was passed in 1899 when the 55th United States Congress passed the Heights of Buildings Act of 1899.[2] The original act restricted the heights of any type of building in the United States capital city of Washington, D.C., to be no higher than 110 feet (90 feet for residential buildings). In 1910, the 61st United States Congress enacted a new law limiting building heights to the width of the right-of-way of the street or avenue on which a building fronts, which is the main law presented by this act.

HT said...

Thank you BJM!

This is good to know:

Ask your landlord these questions:

What retrofitting has been done on this building?
Have the water heaters been strapped to the wall studs?
Can I secure furniture to the walls?


Many of us live in very old apartment buildings.

aromos, yes, I know all about the Height act.