Blogtrek

Earthquake in Virginia

Today I felt the strongest earthquake I have ever experienced. It happened at 2003 December 9 1559. I was at my office, and was preparing an email to send to the other members of my branch. I got the email ready, and hit "Send". Instantly the entire place started shaking back and forth. It did so for about five or six back and forth movements, and wondered what was shaking the building. My office is above the loading dock, so I wondered if something heavy was unloaded from a truck on the dock. But it seemed too heavy for that.

Others in my office noticed it, too, and I wondered if htose in the far side of my office had felt it. I went outside and saw nothing unusual. I had thought several; possibilities: earthquake, terrorist attack, ordnance exploding (I work near where military weapons are discharged occasionally), or a major accident below on the loading dock. The trip outside showed that it wasn't something at the dock, and the sky was clear except for normal clouds, eliminating the ordnance, which would have to be as strong as a MOAB to cause what I felt. I called my wife and found out that she had not felt anything; she had just arrived home from the grocery store. I wanted to call someone to see if this was local or widespread.

I went inside and saw a TV screen on a local Richmond station. They were reporting a mysterious shaking. If it were a terrorist attack, the national stations would be playing. To be felt here with nothing unusual looking here, it would have to have been a nuke, and the TV would be reporting national news. I therefore concluded that it was an earthquake. I looked earthquakes up on the Internet and found that what I experienced was IV-V on the Mercalli scale, and hence R4.5 on the Richter scale. Sure enough, later news reports said that it was indeed an R4.5 quake, and it was centered near Provost, Virginia, near the Powhatan wildlife refuge.

This was by far the most powerful earthquake I have ever experienced. I had experienced only one other earthquake, on 1968 November 9 in Evanston, Illinois, when I was a graduate student at Northwestern University. I was lying on my bed then and felt a floating sensation, and thought that was caused by my being somewhat drowsy. I found out several hours later that it was an R5.3 earthquake with an epicenter in southern Illinois, and that it had caused numerous reports of damage in Missouri and southern Illinois. I also was in an R4.0 earthquake in the Los Angeles area on 1991 July 9 or so, but did not feel it because I was in a car at the time.

But this one was the strongest I have ever felt. This year has really been one for natural disasters: Hurricane Isabel, a tornado five days later, and now an earthquake, plus huge quantities of rain. I suppose next will be a huge snowstorm.