6 May 2008

We had an earthquake!

Posted by Jessica Ball

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 14:55 The 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 14:31 The 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

Magnitude 1.8
Date-Time
  • Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 17:30:23 UTC
  • Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 01:30:23 PM at epicenter
Location 38.828°N, 77.234°W
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region VIRGINIA
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 Uncertainty horizontal +/- 1.7 km (1.1 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 6, Nph= 13, Dmin=70.2 km, Rmss=0.3 sec, Gp=151°,
M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1
Source
Event ID ld1022071
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!)


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