Earthquake Shakes Greater Washington Area

More than 13,000 people logged on to the U.S. Geological Survey's website by mid-morning on Friday to report the earthquake, with some details coming from as far away as Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

RESTON, VA (Catholic Online) - On Friday, at 5:05am, a magnitude 3.6 Earthquake hit the Greater Washington DC metropolitan area. With an epicenter ten miles northwest of Rockville, MD, the quake was felt as far away as West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the event took place approximately three miles beneath the earth's surface.

Living in the Sterling/Potomac Falls area, I was awakened a few minutes after five in the morning by what sounded like thunder or an explosion in the distance. I went back to sleep, thinking that a thunder storm was probably just rolling through.

According to WTOP Radio, more than 13,000 people logged on to the U.S. Geological Survey's website by mid-morning to report the quake, with some details coming from as far away as Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The earthquake woke WTOP listener Christy in her four-bedroom home in Bethesda.

"I was terrified," Christy shared with WTOP. "Then it was a huge jolt and my bed actually went forward from the wall," .

Debby Taylor Busse, of Vienna, VA, told Washington's Fox 5 News that she was watching television in the basement of her home when she felt the quake.

"I didn't know what it was," Busse said. "I have never been in an earthquake before. It felt like an airplane going overhead or thunder, but it wasn't coming from above."

Busse said it lasted only a few seconds and seemed like a rumble of thunder strong enough to rattle the house, but not knock anything over.

NBC News correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, who lives in Maryland, about 25 miles north of district, said he felt the quake for about 10 seconds at his home.

"It started as a low audible rumble that built to a crescendo and shook the house and rattled the windows," he added.

Others across the region reported similar experiences. No injuries or damage was reported.

According to the USGS, the most recent earthquake felt around the Washington area took place on December 9, 2003 and had an epicenter west of Richmond, Virginia. which is a part of the Central Virginia Seismic Zone. It had a magnitude of 4.3.

As far as the largest earthquake on record in Virginia, on May 31, 1897 a magnitude 5.9 tremor took place in Giles County near Blacksburg, VA. A series of small, felt earthquakes, the largest of which was magnitude 2.7, occurred from March to July 1993 near Columbia, Maryland, which is 20 miles from our most recent seismic event.

Seven years ago, on May 5, 2003, a magnitude 3.9 quake struck near Cartersville, Virginia, midway between Charlottesville and Richmond was felt across central Virginia and in parts of Maryland. The most recent earthquake in this region, a magnitude 2.0 event, occurred on May 6, 2008 near Annandale, Virginia.

The USGS said it was possible that smaller aftershocks might hit the area but should die out after a few days.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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