5.8 Earthquake Hits East Coast of the US 614
At 1:51 p.m. EDT a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit Virginia (map of reported tremors). Reports indicate it was felt along most of the east coast (my monitor and floor definitely wobbled a bit down here in Raleigh NC) with reported evacuations of government buildings at least in DC. QuantumPion noted that the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station is located only a few miles from the epicenter, and the NRC has confirmed the plant automatically shut down with no apparent damage. For folks who like that sort of thing, there is a hashtag on Twitter, and the WSJ has a page with live updates on the situation.
Because of the geology (Score:5, Informative)
Earthquakes in the eastern US are felt over a much wider area than those in the western US. It's one big plate, so an earthquake anywhere is felt all across it. Like hitting a pipe with a hammer.
In the west the plates are broken up by many faults, which absorb the energy release.
M5.9 now, looks like it was revised. (Score:4, Informative)
The event webpage: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/usc0005ild.php [usgs.gov]
Epicenter Mineral, VA (Score:3, Informative)
The epicenter of the earthquake was apparently just a few miles away from North Anna Nuclear Power Plant [wikipedia.org].
Re:Felt it here - Bewildering (Score:5, Informative)
Um, No.
The place to go is: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ [usgs.gov]
They had it the epicenter mapped within a few seconds of me feeling the shaking. It's kinda what they do.
You can contribute info by filling out their online survey:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/ [usgs.gov]
And you can sign up for notifications at:
https://sslearthquake.usgs.gov/ens/ [usgs.gov]