How strange that an earthquake struck the East Coast yesterday! Kelvin and I were in the airport getting ready to board our flight to Las Vegas (more on the trip later) when we heard that the 5.8-magnitude quake had stuck my former coast, with the epicenter just 40 miles northwest of my old college town of Richmond, Virginia. Apparently the last quake of such great magnitude in that area was around 1897, although there have been smaller quakes throughout this century that have rattled the eastern seaboard (felt mainly just by people immediately over the epicenters).
My parents, who live in McLean, VA, a D.C. suburb, said that they felt 30-40 seconds of shaking, with some vases toppling over (but luckily not breaking), and two very apprehensive dogs, but otherwise had no loss of power and are all well. I didn't know that quakes (of the same magnitude) are more easily "felt" on the east coast, due to older and colder rock that apparently doesn't absorb seismic waves as well.
I recall witnessing a fairly major earthquake in Southern California in the early 1990s-- I think I slept through the 7.4, but was awake for the 6.5-magnitude aftershock, and I definitely still remember lamps swinging in our hotel room! It is interesting (but probably fortunate) that I haven't felt any major quakes since moving to CA in 2007.
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake also struck northern Peru today-- man, those tectonic plates are active!
I wonder when the next one will hit us on the west (best) U.S. coast...
1 comment:
Hey Tara!
That earthquake was crazy. I was sitting at my desk at work on the top floor of my building, and the whole office start shaking. They eventually evacuated all of us and shut down the site. We had a few things fall off shelves at home, but nothing was damaged. We also felt two of the more powerful aftershocks in the days afterwards.
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