Earthquake in Maryland???WTF?

[undergroundpanther]

DYK..There was an earthquake in Maryland saturday It was felt right here.I saw it reported on the 11 o'clock news tonight..No wonder my cats keep whining and being anxious and wanting to be held so much.And my back still is having a pain frenzy and I too have felt weird all day my emotions have been off.It is warm ,foggy AND windy out tonight.Weird combination wind and fog,it looks really strange moving fast like that..a storm is coming.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/18366069/detail.html

Very little is known about the causes of earthquakes in the eastern United States. In general, there is no clear association among seismicity, geologic structure, and surface displacement, in contrast to a common association in the western U.S.

The mid-Atlantic and central Appalachian region, including Maryland, is characterized by a moderate amount of low-level earthquake activity, but their cause or causes are largely a matter of speculation. In Maryland, for example, there are numerous faults, but none is known or suspected to be active. Because of the relatively low seismic energy release, this region has received relatively little attention from earthquake seismologists (Bollinger, 1969).

http://www.mgs.md.gov/esic/brochures/earthquake.html

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. It happens

I remember a few small ones in NJ. No big deal.

[Larkspur]

2. Most likely a quake from the land rebounding from the Ice Age

We get earthquakes in CT and they are mostly from the land rising in response to being compressed during the ice age. Norway has them too.

[spin]

3. Earthquakes in Maryland...

The earliest recorded earthquake in Maryland occurred in Annapolis, on April 24, 1758. The shock lasted 30 seconds and was preceded by subterranean noises. Additional felt reports were received from a few points in Pennsylvania.

The great earthquake series of 1811 -1812 centered near New Madrid, Missouri, affected an area of 2 million square miles, including Maryland. A moderate-sized earthquake on March 9, 1828, was felt over all of Virginia, West Virginia, and portions of neighboring states, including Maryland. The effects at Baltimore resulted in considerable shaking of doors and agitation of other objects. The center of this earthquake was not accurately fixed, but it was probably in southwest Virginia. Another shock centered in Virginia, on August 27, 1833, was felt noticeably in Baltimore. A similar pattern followed on April 29, 1852, from a moderate shock in southwestern Virginia. Considerable alarm was noted in Baltimore, while Annapolis was reported as merely feeling the tremor.

Harford County, Maryland, was shaken by two or three earthquakes the night of March 11 and the morning of March 12, 1883. The intensity was in the IV - V range, (clocks stopped at Fallston) with felt points also noted in Baltimore County.

Another moderate shock occurred less than two years later, on January 2, 1885, in an area near the Frederick County, Maryland - Ludon County, Virginia, border. Maximum intensity reached V, with the total felt area covering more than 3,500 square miles. Clarke, Fairfax, Fauquier, and Shenandoah Counties, Virginia, also reported this earthquake.

Since 1885, earth vibrations felt in Maryland have been associated with sources for adjacent states and points as far away as the St. Lawrence Valley and Timiskaming, Canada.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/maryland/history.php

[ColbertWatcher]

4. (UPDATED) I hadn't heard about it.

But, one of the biggest earthquakes that has ever taken place in North America was the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_quakes">New Madrid quakes in 1812.

In fact, it was so big, it changed the course of the Mississippi river.

(EDITED TO ADD)

Oh, and I forgot, the moon has quakes, too! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonquake

[uppityperson]

14. New Madrid quake was wild. They moniter the interior for signs of

a repeat coming.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. Yeah they do.

I hope they have some kind of preparedness out there, because despite all the practice we have out here in SoCal had just conducted an earthquake drill http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-quake27-2008dec27,0,1231537.story and found out how prepared/unprepared we are.

Which is to say we still have stuff we need to work on.

[salguine]

5. This Marylander must have missed it.

[BeatleBoot]

6. Detroit gets them from time to time

small ones, but earthquakes.

My plant fell off my desk at work once and the person I was on the phone with (across town) felt it, too.

Can't remember the date exactly, but it was about the same time as the Space Shuttle going down back in the 80's.

[Indiana_Dem]

8. Might have been the same I experienced one here in North Central IN.

It was 1987 in the spring. I remember because I was pregnant and I was eating pizza in my kitchen. The epicenter was in southern Indiana near Terre Haute or Evansville. I had never experienced an earthquake in IN before and I've lived here most of my 44 years. I experienced some inCalifornia for the 2 years I lived in Los Angeles, so I knew what it was when it happened! I just couldn't believe it happened in IN!

Then I heard on the news about the New Madrid fault line near St. Louis or something--and all about its history. Yikes!

[Berry Cool]

21. No, if it was in '87 and epicentered in Indiana, it was a different earthquake.

The one in Northeast Ohio was in January of '86. The papers my family sent me have comments in them that some people thought it was some sort of echo effect from the Challenger explosion, or sonic boom from the Air Force jets flying over astronaut Judith Resnick's funeral in Akron.

Of course, the other theory, the Cold War still being alive and well, was that the Soviets had finally dropped The Big One on New York.

That's the kind of reactions you get when Ohio has an earthquake--the same kind Californians would shrug off with an "oh, there goes another earthquake" reaction.

[Berry Cool]

20. That would have been the Northeastern Ohio earthquake, January 31, 1986.

It was about a Richter 5. Epicenter was in the southern part of Lake County.

I had moved away from Ohio just prior to it, but I still have the newspapers my family sent me. They'll never forget it!

[BeatleBoot]

25. Thanks for the corroboration on that.

I was only in my early 20's then, and was more interested in my job and my future wife.

I remember that quake, the shuttle going down, Reagan, and my favorite band at that time made the cover of Time Magazine (U2).

Funny how your memory links things together like that...

Again, thank you!



:toast:

[Baby Snooks]

7. Or it could be from drilling...

They have earthquakes in Southeast Texas and Southern Louisiana and in the Gulf of Mexico from drilling. The ones in the Gulf of Mexico can be 5.0 or more. Maybe someone has been drilling for oil and caused some shifting as the oil is pumped out. How far are you from the White House?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[foxfeet]

9. It's Divine, turning over in her grave

over the Rick Warren invocation. (Bet you didn't think he'd be dragged into this thread, now did ya?):P


Carry on.

[undeterred]

10. The only earthquake I ever felt was when I lived in Chicago

The epicenter was in Indianapolis. I thought the dog ran into the couch or something. The earthquake expert at Loyola University didn't feel a thing.

[Luminous Animal]

11. There was an earthquake in Delaware

in '73? '74? It happened sometime in the middle of the night. I was a heavy sleeper and slept through it but the rest of my family woke up and went outside after hearing a hullabaloo from some of the neighbors. Turns out that much of the noise was from the local "holy rollers" on their knees and screaming for salvation because they thought it was judgment day.

[lurky]

12. Two points:

1: 3.4 ain't nothin'. That's about the same as a truck passing your house. Quakes that size can happen anywhere anytime, not just in California.
2: Big quakes can happen on the East Coast, they are just less common. Take the Charleston, South Carolina quake of 1886. It was around 7.0 on the Richter scale, which is roughly equivalent to the big Loma Prieta quake in San Francisco in 1989.

[xfundy]

13. It's causa all the homosekshuls and libruls moving East from California!

All the good teletubbyvangelists wished evil upon California and laughed when the dot-bomb exploded and the CA economy reeled during the Second Bush Error, forcing many eeeeeeevil libruls to move east! Now the easterers and "Flyover, Baby Jesus" states're reapin' the whirlwind! Glory!!

Fundies, you shoulda left us alone. Declare "WAR" on thinkers--th' libruls, teh gays, and the educated people--what could possibly go wrong?

I, of course, am battened down in an undisclosed location fortified by Sin Francisco values! Bring it on, ya bastards. Who wants a latte?

[spin]

16. Who knows, it might just be global warming. (n/t)

[spin]

17. Florida had a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Sept 2006....

The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Informaiton Center is reporting a 6.0 magnitude earthquake has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 250 miles WSW of Anna Maria, Florida. Tremors were reportedly felt in the Tampa Bay Area and as far north as Georgia. The quake occurred at the epicenter at approximately 10:56 a.m. Sunday morning. The quake was updated from 5.8 magnitude.

The following information has been released by the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center:

A strong earthquake occurred about 250 miles (405 km) south-southwest of Apalachicola, Florida at 8:56 AM MDT, Sep 10, 2006 (10:56 AM EDT in Florida). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. This earthquake was felt in parts of Florida, Georgia and Alabama. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time.

http://www.observernews.net/artman/publish/article_001724.shtml

Earthquakes (like shit) happen.

[originalpckelly]

18. Bush + Bean Dip = Earthquake

[madamesilverspurs]

19. Parents lived in Eureka, California

for a while. Gorgeous area, and they kept trying to entice me to move there. On my first visit I noted that the newspaper weather report was accompanied by a DAILY earthquake report. Yikes.

[AnnieBW]

22. No wonder my cats were acting freaked

And I thought it was just because we'd left them alone for a few days.

[and-justice-for-all]

23. There are earthquakes everyday...

and if you know how plate tectonics works, it would not be such a surprise. I live in Indiana and we have quakes from time to time.

in time, the continents will converge once again to form a new super continent and that will be the end of life on earth. oh, it will not happen for a few million years and we will not be around to see it.

The best part, the super volcano in Yellow Stone will be eventually erupt.

[goforit]

24. 3.4 is nothing more than a gentle breeze. A bike moving down a st. has

stronger vibrations than a 3.4.