I was in my second floor office on Tuesday when our whole building shook for several seconds. Everyone gathered, wondering with different expressions what happened. I was pretty sure it was an earthquake, so I thought I'd check...
So I jumped on the web and went to the US Geological Survey. I'd seen they have a wealth of information on seismic activity in years past after travelling in CA.
Within 15 minutes, I found seismic readings from Blacksburg, VA and Charlottesville, VA. The both showed significant activity at the time we felt the movement. So I knew it wasn't just a local thing. (Both are over an hour from where we are in the northern Shenandoah Valley.) I could have looked at other seismographs, but I didn't feel the need.
Nothing else showed up on the USGS website except a magnitude 2-something quake a month earlier in the same general area of Tuesday's quake for several minutes. But within 30 minutes of the quake, the site was updated. It showed a 4.5 magnitude quake in the Richmond area. The page has continued to be updated as more info comes in.
That's the web at it's best.
This was the first time I ever felt a tremor, even though I have seen in the news from time to time that I experienced one...(make sense?)
Here are some cool links. If you look around much, you'll see there's much more seismic activity than Average Joe realizes.
� Preliminary earthquake report. This page has been updated everytime I've been to it.
� Recent earthquakes. A map which shows where in the US earthquakes have happened recently. The map will lead to the reports like above. You can also link to a world map.
� Seismograph readings. This is what lead me to the seismographs that I used on Tuesday.
� Did you feel it? This will lead you to a pretty thorough form that you can fill out to report feeling a tremor. I filled it out. My review of what I felt matched the intensity of what they said we felt. This page will also lead to the link below.
� Event map. This map shows where the USGS has reports of people feeling the tremor. It shows a lot of detail, including intensity by county. Map's constantly updated. You'd be surprised how widespread Tuesday's quake was.
FWIW, those of you in SC could feel a quake sometime too. I remember reading about the faults in that part of the country as I grew up. I think there's a fault down near Charleston, but I can't come with the info quickly.
Did you feel Tuesday's quake? Have you ever felt one?
Posted by JRC at December 12, 2003 09:45 PM