Shaking Up DC

I've felt a few earthquakes over the years, a couple tremors between SF and Oakland, one in LA and at least one in Tokyo. A hard jolt here or a little rumbling there, fortunately nothing serious and they weren't extremely surprising because they come with the territory.

To be awakened in DC at 5am this morning by an earthquake was more of a shock than any other quake I'd experienced before. It wasn't strong, a 3.6 centered 20 miles from where we are, but it was totally out of place and news reports say it was the largest quake ever recorded in this area.

Très bizarre.

From the US Geological Survey...

A minor earthquake occurred at 5:04:47 AM (EDT) on Friday, July 16, 2010 .
The magnitude 3.6 event occurred 30 km (19 miles) NE (37 degrees) of Washington/Dulles,DC.
The hypocentral depth is 5 km ( 3 miles).

From the Washington Post...

Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the USGS, said the quake was the largest recorded within about 45 miles of Germantown since a database was created to track such activity in 1974. The largest earthquake before Friday morning's was a 2.7 tremor in 1993, Vaughan said. There was a 2.6 magnitude tremor in 1990 and quakes measuring 2.5 in 1997, 1993 and 1974.