5.9 Earthquake in NEW JERSEY!!!!!

I have an aunt and uncle in VA, in fact my uncle works at the Pentagon and they had to evacuate it (all older govt. buildings were evacuated) till they could be checked for structural integrity and such.
My aunt's workplace is a single sory building and it shook and sounded as if there were a ton of people stamping on the roof, they had to leave their building too and as far as I know they aren't back in yet, or considering the time there now they were probably sent home.

 

Well the earthquake didn't take out Jersey shore....hurricane round two?

 

It was a joke.

I can drive all around my city and houses, factories, and businesses are simply not there anymore due to a tornado. We have our fair share of butt-shaking tremors too. We don't act like this. People are spazzing over getting their butt shaken. They are closing down buildings, mass transit, etc. Seems silly to me.

 

It all depends on the number of faults between you and the quake. The more faults the less you feel it.

We barely felt the '89 Loma Prieta earthquake here in Reno although we are only 200 miles from the Bay area. Way too many faults for the energy from a 7.9 to have a big shake here. A 7.9 quake is 100 times strong than a 5.9 quake also.

 

Felt it here in Charlotte

 

As a disclaimer, this is not a reply looking for sympathy, just some experience to help explain the differences in what people felt...

I live in Christchurch, New Zealand and we have had some devastating quakes recently (in fact we reached aftershock number 7443 yesterday since the original September 2010 quake - it's been a horrifying year!!).
Christchurch is built on ancient river beds which liquified in the 7.1 earthquake. Many building sank several meters into the ground, and cars disappeared as the ground liquified below them.

In my experience over the last year, softer ground not only liquifies, but ripples just like throwing a stone into the water, causing major damage.
We also had a 6.3 aftershock from a fault in the ancient volcanic hills adjacent to Christchurch. In this case, the houses on the hills were not as damaged as houses in Christchurch itself. The hills seem to transfer the energy without as much movement, kind of like a Newton's cradle. The damage comes when the energy bursts out the other side of the solid hills into the unprepared city!

From our experience, the waves ripple through the sand as it liquifies then hit the bedrock and transmit through the bedrock without too much motion (the Newton's cradle-type effect).

Hopefully that helps explain things!

Hope everyone's tanks are ok!!! Skim hard for a couple of days - even if things weren't knocked over, it's likely some detritus was released from sand and rocks as they wobbled.

 

Hahaha... we say the same about Floridians closing schools over a dusting of snow. Guess Karma's a b****. LOL. I only recall one other tremor back in '84, and that one was mild compared to the one today.

BTW, since destructive natural forces are so rare around this area, I would guess our infrastructure isn't designed to accommodate for it, hence the need to check structural integrity when it does happen.

 

I'm well experienced in quakes... I've seen the ripples you speak of. I've seen cement ripple like that, roads ripple and sand. Living in California all my life lends it's share of quake experiences. Funny thing is, the largest one I have been through was NOT the most scary one by far.

 

I think the big deal is that basically nobody in this area has felt an earthquake before. That alone lends a good deal to the reaction. My entire office was confused as to whether that was actually an earthquake at all for a few minutes (until, like a good tech company, we all hopped on our smartphones hahaha), as nobody had ever felt one before.

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While the quake wasn't big by any means, it's the fact that they never experience them there. Think if California were to experience tornadoes, hurricanes or blinding snow. It's all about what you're used to coping with.