At 1:51pm on August 23, 2011, Virginia had a 5.8 magnitude earthquake, the largest since 1875. My house started shaking, my cat ran upstairs to his hiding place and I ran outside to see what was going on out there. It lasted a solid 30 seconds before tapering off. All the neighbors came outside with amazement of what just happened. The epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia a town that is just 45 miles from my home in Richmond. Then at 8:04pm we had a 4.2 aftershock that wasn’t anything like the original, but you could still noticeably hear and feel the earth shaking. I can only image what a severe earthquake feels like and I hope to never experience one.
Now let’s just hope Hurricane Irene spares us any damage as well.
U.S. Geological Survey info on 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Virginia.
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