Earthquake!
Shortly after 1:50pm, an earthquake with a measurement of 5.8 was felt throughout the Richmond metro area, originating 38 miles west of the city. It was also reported that people as far north as Portland, Maine and Southern Ontario, Canada felt the ground tremble.
Shortly after 1:50pm, an earthquake with a measurement of 5.8 was felt throughout the Richmond metro area, originating 38 miles west of the city. It was also reported that people as far north as Portland, Maine and Southern Ontario, Canada felt the ground tremble.
If the current magnitude estimate holds, this recent 5.8 quake will tie This 5.8 magnitude quake ranks second to the previous record set in 1897 in Giles County, Virginia. Tremors were felt for six days after that initial quake.
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Leave reports/accounts below in the comments.
Reports/Updates
- Cellphone service in the area appears to be spotty. We are having a hard time making / receiving calls specifically using Verzion.
- We are hearing reports of tremors felt as far north as Toronto, as far south as Charleston, and as far west as Illinois.
- Several buildings downtown, including City Hall, have been evacuated.
- Both reactors at the North Anna nuclear power plant were automatically shut down.
- Operations continue at Richmond International Airport, but they may see diversions from other airports.
Kings Dominion has temporarily closed all attractions. Some attractions at Kings Dominion are closed.- A magnitude 4.2 aftershock was recorded around 8:00pm and could be felt and heard throughout the region. This followed the two prior aftershocks earlier this afternoon measuring 2.8 and 2.2 that were too small to be felt.
Related
- The official USGS page about the August 23rd earthquake; USGS
- A list of all earthquakes in Virginia; Wikipedia
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Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Felt it up here in Philly, hearing reports of people feeling it as far west as Ohio, as far south as Atlanta, and as far north of Canada. I’m a Richmond native and can’t get in touch with my father in the city. Any reports of damage or anything?
@Tobias We haven’t heard any reports of damage. We’ll keep you posted.
Thanks guys, sorry about the double post.
I’ve heard reports of phone outages. Probably the lines are overwhelmed by all the chatter.
yeah work downtown in a high-rise right off I-95… no official evacuation for the bldg but a heck of a lot of people went out anyway (my whole team did). We just came back in. Seems you can call fios home phones but definitely no cell service just yet.
No damage anywhere around us… just quite a few seconds of building shaking. That’s my first earthquake.
No damage at my building — just a whole lotta rumbling (and a very fast me scurrying out of my bookshelf-filled office lickity-split).
We felt it at the Livonia Town Hall, Livonia, NY The building was shaking pray there are no injuries anywhere –
I just moved from richmond to San diego…and they have a earthquake in Richmond…go figure. I just got in touch with my parents in midlothian and they are ok. Just worried about aftershocks.
I’m work from home in Chesterfield, VA – about 20 miles from the epicenter. cell phones OK now, landlines still out. Kept power – but couldn’t find a channel w/any news. Finally occurred to me to try the internet.
I’m from CA so have experienced these before, but this was a long on. And just as scarey here as in CA. I heard something fall, but can’t find anything on the floor. Waiting for the aftershocks…
Food for thought:
Dominion nuclear plant lost offsite power and is now running on diesel.
Just got off the phone a little while ago w/brother in Fredericksburg (I’m on West coast) he’s now out running errands, says no damage seen or heard of but they definitely felt it and things fell off walls. Might be more problems/disruption due to infrastructure reaction and panic than actual earthquake. I hear some DC facilities are shut down/evacuated…gov’t buildings & JFK airport, also tunnels in NY. Wow!! First tornados in VA and now this!
I work in an office building off Midlothian near Chesterfield Town Center Mall and we had “structural damage” to the suite across from our office. No one gave details but I heard rumblings of their being damage to the floors and corners of their office. We were also all sent home so they could get a structural engineer in.
Our building on E. Main was built in 1890, so we were out of there! Heard some people say that the windows in their office buildings were bowing with the sway. I am very surprised we didn’t have any broken windows.
I would be more concerned with new structures like homes and commercial buildings in an area like Short Pump, than with an 1890’s building. They don’t make ’em like they used to. Though I did hear that someone up east was injured buy a brick that fell off a building.
The structures of many of the older buildings won’t give way, but the chimneys sometimes will fall, as I hear did happen to at least one older building (in Mineral? I think?) I’ve lived in one of those centuries-old homes and we lived in fear of the old, leaning brick chimney coming down on us… Glad all of you got through it fine and I sincerely hope Irene doesn’t do much harm to you & yours. Best wishes.