Earthquake

Well, I have experienced my first earthquake.  It was quite interesting.  My first thought was that one of the 2 huge trees near the house was falling on it an breaking through the attic in stages.  But I realized immediately that the shaking was too frequent and sudden.  So I guess it was about 5 seconds before I knew it had to be an earthquake.

It was odd; the house felt like it was being pounded rather than shaken.  There was no vertical movement sensation.  I think I was being moved back and forth laterally about 6 inches.  I kept on my feet, but after a few more seconds it became visually disorienting because the house and I were not moving in the same way.  So I had to put a hand on the kitchen counter.

It felt as though it lasted about 15 seconds, but everyone on TV later agreed it was about 25 seconds.  The center was about 90 miles away, in central VA, 5.8 magnitude.  Apparently there was one major aftershock and several minor ones in the following hour, but I did not feel any of those here. 

The range of detectable shaking was very large; from Atlanta GA to Ontario, to Ohio (as best I've heard).  It was so widespread because the US east coast is old solid ground; few faults to absorb movement.

  I went outside immediately when the shaking stopped, mainly in case one of those trees DID decide to fall.  It was another minute before the first neighbor came out.  It was hilarious.  The first 3 neighbors to come out all asked "Did you feel that?".  DUH!  I assured them that everyone for many miles around had surely felt it.  I said, "for all we know at the moment, New York is in ruins or the New Madrid fault opened up again" (none of my neighbors had heard of New Madrid).

I went back inside to look for any damage and check CNN for details and likelihood of aftershocks.  All the cats were STILL poofed up after 10 minutes and now, 3 hours later are demanding more attention than usual (making it hard to type).  The only consequences were some fishtank water had sloshed out (no fish), a framed photograph had shaken off a bookshelf, and one tippy samurai figurine had fallen over (undamaged).

It was interesting, but I won't mind if it doesn't happen again...