Posted on 07/16/2010 9:23:12 AM PDT by combat_boots
WASHINGTON - A 3.6 magnitude earthquake woke the Washington metro region Friday, rattling homes and startling people.
The U.S. Geological Survey says it happened at exactly 5:04:49 a.m. about 3 miles under the earth's surface.
Right after it happened calls from all around Maryland, Northern Virginia and as far away as West Virginia started lighting up the WTOP newsroom phone lines.
"It was centered in the Germantown-Gaithersburg area," Randy Baldwin, a physicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Information Center, tells WTOP.
The earthquake woke WTOP listener Christy in her four-bedroom home in Bethesda.
"I was terrified. Then it was a huge jolt and my bed actually went forward from the wall," Christy told WTOP.
The USGS received 6,500 reports about this quake. While minor, this quake was out of the norm for the region.
Baldwin say the area's last earthquake was 2.0 in 2008. The region also had a 2.7 quake in 1993.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
They have five 3.6ers in LA before lunch.
This isn’t God’s work, Washington is still there.
Too bad he didn’t flatten the place.
If you’ve never felt an earthquake, I wonder if you realize what happened right away.
Ask Shiela Jackson Lee whether it occurred in North or South Vietnam.
Oh, there is an earthquake coming all right.
Too bad this one did not level Washington. It would be a start.
Already donated, but thank you!
Burritos on the menu last night? The White House wookie let one fly?
I was hoping Revelations was happening, i.e., where “the pit” opens and God casts the Devil and his minions into it...
“If you’ve never felt an earthquake, I wonder if you realize what happened right away.”
Great question. Sound started first. Woke up quickly thinking it was garbage trucks in the alley. As my mind was saying, ‘No- not right,’ the tremors started. Took about two seconds to think, ‘Hey, it’s an earthquake!!!’
LOL. And her constituents wouldn't know.
I never thought about the sound.
This morning I was awake before my alarm went off at 5:10 am. I heard what I thought was a peal of low thunder and thought “wait a sec, no rain today in the forecast!”. Within 5 seconds the hose shook with cracks and pops and rattles. After 10 seconds, I said out loud “That was an earthquake!” So it takes a while to recognize what it is (especially if you’re not fully awake!)
I got up and went to the website USGS website and sure enough it was a 3.6 about 15 miles away.
We have, what I call, “boom-box cars” in my neighborhood that rattle my front windows. I’d probably missed the whole thing.
I was in the Sylmar earthquake back in the 70’s.
Nobody I knew thought it was an earthquake. It was a 6.8. People mostly thought we were being bombed. My dad thought the house was siding down the hill. All I remember most was a very loud rumble before the earthquake hit. Apparently, the sound travels faster than the earthquake itself.
I will never forget that sound.
We also had no running water for a week. Prepping is for earthquakes and more.
IIRC, I heard a rumbling early this morning while in bed (I had gone to bed after 1 am), but since I did not check the time, I’m not sure it was the same thing.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Nope.
“The region also had a 2.7 quake in 1993.”
Isn’t this part of the rash of earthquakes we had in this area? Actually, I think I was still in my 2nd college - which would’ve made it before ‘91. Howard Co. had countless shocks in the 3.0 range, centered on the MD 32/US 29 intersection. I felt 1 myself shake the house.
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