Who would have thought? Believe it or not, it happened today; a 4.5 on the Richter scale, to boot. Shortly before 4pm, I was sitting on my bed, taking a quick break from work. I was petting one of my cats (Tessie) and the pot holding my bamboo plant started rattling against the marble top of my night stand. The bed shook ever-so-slightly underneath me. Our house is situated somewhat in the flight path for Baltimore-Washington International airport, so we sometimes have planes or helicopters that'll shake the house a bit, so I didn't think much about it. It continued for about ten seconds before I stood up and unconsciously walked to the door way to stand against the door frame. My cat was sitting up, looking every which way, obviously disturbed by something.
As quickly as it started, the rattling stopped. I couldn't decide if it had been an earthquake or not. Years and years ago, I remember feeling an earthquake in this area, so I knew it was a possibility. I sat down and quickly checked WashingtonPost.com for any confirmation, but found none. A quick Google search for earthquake
turned up the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, which gives maps of recent quakes and other pertinent information. However, I couldn't find anything there. I searched around a bit more, found nothing, and figured I was just imagining it.
A few minutes later, a friend from school came online and asked myself and someone in Virginia, did y'all just have a small earthquake?
You felt that too?!? I thought I was nuts,
I responded.
Further searches at the USGS turned up information about the quake. WTOPnews.com was first with the story. The WashingtonPost.com quickly got their own story online. Reports of the quake flooded in to the USGS from all over the region. The Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory shows seismograph data.
It's not really a big deal, I'm just glad I'm not nuts.
