UPDATE: Find out more background information about earthquakes. Also, the Washington Post's John Wagner Tweets: "Maryland State House evacuated following earthquake" (follow Maryland Juice on Twitter).
Dear readers: My house shook, the walls were vibrating, and a low rumbling sound emerged everywhere around me. There was just an EARTHQUAKE in the DC Metro area. Scary! Surprisingly, one of my friends in New York City also felt it: "Yeah we felt it in NYC too. It must've been really strong in DC."
The U.S. Geological Survey is measuring this event as a 5.9 on the Richter scale, with the epicenter 27 miles East of Charlottsville. Note: the USGS has a cool tool called "Did you feel it?" that allows internet users to add their earthquake experiences to an online database. Input your story online!
According to Wikipedia: "An earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0" and that an earthquake between 5.0 and 5.9 "can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. At most slight damage to well-designed buildings."
Notably, Wikipedia also says there are about 800 worldwide earthquakes of this magnitude every year. For perspective, twice in the last two days, Colorado witnessed earthquakes between 4.6 and 5.3 on the Richter scale.
See the USGS report on the Virginia earthquake below:
Dear readers: My house shook, the walls were vibrating, and a low rumbling sound emerged everywhere around me. There was just an EARTHQUAKE in the DC Metro area. Scary! Surprisingly, one of my friends in New York City also felt it: "Yeah we felt it in NYC too. It must've been really strong in DC."
The U.S. Geological Survey is measuring this event as a 5.9 on the Richter scale, with the epicenter 27 miles East of Charlottsville. Note: the USGS has a cool tool called "Did you feel it?" that allows internet users to add their earthquake experiences to an online database. Input your story online!
According to Wikipedia: "An earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0" and that an earthquake between 5.0 and 5.9 "can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. At most slight damage to well-designed buildings."
Notably, Wikipedia also says there are about 800 worldwide earthquakes of this magnitude every year. For perspective, twice in the last two days, Colorado witnessed earthquakes between 4.6 and 5.3 on the Richter scale.
See the USGS report on the Virginia earthquake below:
