Tuesday, May 6, 2008

We had an earthquake!

Okay, so 1.8 is pretty dinky - but I felt this one, darn it. Whee! My first earthquake.

Details from the Arlington Alert website:

05/06/08 14:55The USGS has confirmed a magnitude 1.8 "micro" earthquake occurred near Annandale, VA at 1:30pm. There have been no reports of damage or injuries.
OEM/LCS
05/06/08 14:31The National Earthquake Information Center, via FEMA Operations, is reporting that Northern VA has experienced rumblings equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 2 to 3. It remains unclear if this was an actual earthquake, or due to another cause.
Arlington OEM will continue to monitor.
OEM/LCS

The USGS report:

Earthquake Details

Magnitude1.8
Date-Time
  • Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 17:30:23 UTC
  • Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 01:30:23 PM at epicenter
Location38.828°N, 77.234°W
Depth10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
RegionVIRGINIA
Distances
  • 2 km (1 miles) WSW (250°) from Annandale, VA
  • 3 km (2 miles) NW (320°) from North Springfield, VA
  • 3 km (2 miles) SE (143°) from Mantua, VA
  • 6 km (4 miles) NNE (32°) from Burke, VA
  • 12 km (8 miles) WSW (242°) from Arlington, VA
  • 21 km (13 miles) WSW (244°) from Washington, DC
Location Uncertaintyhorizontal +/- 1.7 km (1.1 miles); depth fixed by location program
ParametersNST= 6, Nph= 13, Dmin=70.2 km, Rmss=0.3 sec, Gp=151°,
M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1
Source
Event IDld1022071


Map showing earthquakes

Now I'm all excited. Yup, not getting any work done today.

(Actually, we thought someone was moving furniture upstairs. Or that our elevator had crashed. )


UPDATE: Oh, I feel cool. Got to do the "Did You Feel It?" report. Oh yeah.

UPDATE 2: Thanks to Ron for the email - he checked in with Callan and I right away. (Callan's got great coverage, and he managed to find the seismogram of the earthquake from the Maryland Geological Survey. And he was practically on top of the thing. Lucky!)

4 comments:

Callan Bentley said...

Woo hoo!

Silver Fox said...

I lived in the No. Virginia area for 12 years and never once felt an earthquake - or even heard of one! Keep us posted on the cause.

Julian said...

Whoa. Congratulations on hitting that geologic milestone! Now all you need is the glacier, yeah?

Anonymous said...

This is such a great blog. Wonderful photos and content. Here is the correct link for th VA quake:May 6 VA quake. It's the big blue trace around 12:30pm EST. I clicked on the link abouve today (05/12/07) and saw the China quake. It looked a bit strong for the VA quake. Anyway, I love your work and can't get enough volcano.