East coast earthquake

[jim-ratliff]

WOW. My first earthquake.  5.9 on the Richter scale, epicenter about 50 miles south of here, and here on the 6th floor it was really moving around, but nothing falling off the wall; pretty obvious what was going on (once it was clear that the building wasn't falling down).


TOTALLY UNEXPECTED!!


Epicenter in Mineral, VA is very close to Lake Anna, and the Lake Anna nuclear plant.  According to early news, both reactors shut down automatically just like they are supposed to do (but I can imagine the surprise by the operations staff down there as the fact that there was that large an earthquake on the east coast gradually began to sink in.

[jbotti]

After living in the SF Bay area for the last 19 years, I have gotten pretty used to sitting through small quakes as the house shakes. The first time however is a unique and wild experience. 5.9 is actually a decent sized tremor.

[jim-ratliff]

Actually, Standard and Poors has downgraded it to a 5.8.
Was only 3 miles down, so effectively stronger than a 5.8 west coast quake that is 30+ miles deep.
Strange to see a couple of our California transplants just instinctively huddle under the doorframes.

[Gary]

So Jim, our east coast quake is badder than than a comparable west coast quake.?..

There it is...Jim has thrown down the gauntlet! 

I also heard today that our east coast fault line is much older than the west coast one...

Now did those tremors travel in perfect parallel vibrations, or were they shopping for directional changes? hmmmmm

Did those tremors use parallel dynamics.....I'm really challenged here!  Best, G

[jim-ratliff]

So Jim, our east coast quake is badder than than a comparable west coast quake.?..
There it is...Jim has thrown down the gauntlet! 

YEPPPP!!  If I yell at 300 decibels from 10 feet away from your ear, it will sound much louder than if I do the same from a mile away.  Simple physics, and attenuation of the concentric force rings as it travels through the conducive medium. 


But this time when the magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit Virginia, it resonated as far north as Toronto. That's partly because the East sits atop rock that is old and "cold," she says, and less able to absorb seismic waves than the malleable, younger rock of the West Coast's active earthquake zone. East Coast quakes, she said, tend to "ring like a bell."

[Gary]

Remind me to tell you about the time I met a conducive medium...

there will be no yelling in my ear tank you!

Pretty wild though having the quake travel so far from epi center.

Now...how does this all affect how much snow we will be receiving?