Virginia Earthquake Rocks DC

Hey, Washington, DC was just rocked by an earthquake! The tremor hit at 1:51 PM today, and the earthquake detail page on USGS shows an initial magnitude of 5.8, epicenter near Mineral, VA, somewhere between Richmond and Charlottesville. Twitter is alight with reports of shaking felt from down the Carolinas all the way up to Canada, and as of 2PM the streets around many buildings around Downtown DC are still teeming with people who fled buildings at the initial shock. The source of the earthquake was fairly shallow, just 6 km underground, which explains why the tremor was felt over such a wide area.

Metro is currently limiting trains to 10-15 mph while the tracks are checked for kinks.

Did you feel it? Where were you and what did you do?

Roving Asian mendicant, can occasionally be seen wandering the streets of downtown Washington, muttering unintelligible gibberish to passers-by while pushing a “bag lady” shopping cart full of old blankets, American flags, soda cans, and healthy secondhand snacks from organic food shop dumpsters. Used to live in a cardboard box at 16th and K but the rent was too expensive.

21 thoughts on “Virginia Earthquake Rocks DC

  1. I was in the Holocaust Museum doing research. Now I’ m outside with a ton of people with helos & cop cars out and about.

  2. I work from home in Atlanta GA and I felt it here. My desk and computer were shaking and then suddenly stopped.

  3. I didn’t feel it personally, but I heard people in Franklin Park, PA (northern Pittsburgh, PA) felt the tremor.

  4. No longer an earthquake virgin! I was on the 10th floor of the National Press Building, and did the stairs in a new record best (something like 10 secs flat).

    Oh, and let me personally thank the person who was freaking out behind me and nearly pushed me down the stairs around the 8th floor. Glad you got out those few seconds faster; really made the difference between life and death (as in mine).

  5. I was in Fredericksburg, VA when my house started shaking and stuff on walls starting coming off. I thought it was the constuction of new homes behind me but when I looked outside and saw no workers and it kept going I was like, “WOW, this is an earthquake????”

  6. Yep..really felt it here in Richmond, Virginia for a good 15 secs…had to evacuate the building…all is good now : )

  7. I was in my office on the 17th floor in Rosslyn (Arlington, VA). The building shook so bad that I crawled under my desk for a little while, as I thought the ceiling lights might fall. That was super scary. At first I thought it might have to do with the blasting for the new Metro entrance, but it only took seconds to confirm via Twitter that it was an earthquake. Really, really scary! There are lots of people still milling about on the streets here.

  8. I was pretty frightened by the quake. I thought the house was collapsing or something. Luckily nothing happened (except that my cell phone stopped working).

  9. Working in an office on 16th Street – felt the building shaking and we all evacuated. 16th Street buildings (north of the White House) all cleared out, but things seem back to order.

  10. I am in Chesapeake VA. and I definitely felt it. The house started shaking and my dogs were going nuts. Called my boyfriend and he thought I was crazy…until he heard the news and he called back to apologize and ask if I was ok. Whewww that was weird.

  11. A few shakes here on 23&M.

    Offtopic, related:
    North Anna nuclear plant was near the epicenter and has been shut down due to an “Unusual Event” (which is the LOWEST entry on the Emergency Scale). Can’t wait to see that story get blown out of proportion…

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  13. I was driving at the time and my car always shakes like hell, as if reentering the atmosphere, so I missed the whole thing, except for Kojo Namdi describing it during his show on WAMU. I feel like the one guy in a crowd who doesn’t understand the joke but laughs anyway.

    Beautiful Girlfriend felt it up in Laurel, MD, and they rapidly exited the low-rise building she works in.

    Who wants to get a mint julep with me and celebrate surviving this disaster?

  14. I was in the office at my desk in Stockbridge, GA (South of Atlanta). My desk monitors started rocking and I thought, I must have been shaking my foot and realized I was not. My office plant and window blinds started rocking. Then others collegues on the flood noticed the same thing. This was a very wierd feeling!!!!

  15. Yawn… 5.8? those are fun, things move around. Really gets exciting when above 6.6 to 7.0 in my experience.

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  17. felt it up here in marshburg pa. things didnt move though. it was very wave like. felt like a wave of energy moved thru. swayed thru. everything swayed. abosolutely the strangest feeling ive ever felt.

    take out the scary…and it was the most amazing feeling.