After the gentle swaying subsided and we emerged from stunned silence, we called William Melson, Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Division of Petrology and Volcanology at the Smithsonian. Mr. Melson lives in the Shenandoah Valley, but he spoke with us from Arlington.

The epicenter, he tells us, is a small Virginia hamlet named Louisa, but tremors were felt as far south as North Carolina and as far north as New York. Read More

Here we were, sitting in our office, when we felt a gentle rocking. It stopped. Then we stared at each other.

“Was that just a…?!”

“WTF?”

etc. etc.

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 2011!

Here’s the USGS assessment.

UPDATE:

From the Weston Observatory at the Boston College Department of Geology, USGS Outpost

Magnitude: 5.9

Epicenter: Read More