This morning just after 5 I woke up and could have sworn my bed was moving. I thought that it was just some sort of dream so I went back to sleep.
Well it turns out I wasn’t dreaming, we had a 3.6 magnitude quake. They said it could be felt from Gaithersburg, MD over to West Virginia. News on the quake.
Guess I’m not totally crazy after all.
Was that what that was? The house shook around 5:05 and woke me up. I thought it was a large truck going by, and went back to sleep.
As I recall, the last time an earthquake woke me up, about 20 years ago in Colorado, I went back to sleep then too.
I can only imagine the look on everyone’s face.
Paul we were all asleep so I don’t think there were many looks to be seen. They said it lasted for about 10 seconds, which make sense. I do remember waking up just after 5 with the bed shaking and wondering what the hell was going on, and then I was mad because I had to get up soon anyway. I wonder what the cat thought.
I had just gotten up and heard what sounded like a truck going by…whoohoo! My first earthquake!
Weird, I’ll have to ask my mom if she felt it.
That news story was way overblown – “I thought the building was going to come down! My bed was thrown away from the wall!” By a 3.6? Suuuuure.
Earthquakes are weird as hell, I admit, but this was a teeny little one, people. It’s okay.
We snapped awake from a snooze-alarm-induced stupor at 5-ish because our pet parrots were having a fright – they were full-on panic mode in their cages. At the time we thought the refrigerator was making an unusually loud noise or the birds were really rattling their cages, but now I suspect we heard the quake and didn’t realize it. Lisa said the birds sounded like a washing machine for a few seconds. Several people have reported a loud rumbling or grinding noise in online reports about the quake.
According to a rough estimate I did using Google Maps and my thumb), we’re about 10 miles from Gaithersburg, MD (it’s across the Potomac River.) Not sure where the epicenter was exactly, but the press reports say 20 miles straight down under Gaithersburg.
One of our dogs, Sadie, had barked an “alert” bark at 3:15 am, and wagged her tail when I got up to see what it was. I couldn’t see anything, and she was content to go right back to bed, but now I am wondering if she sensed a pre-shock or something. The quake itself was right after 5:00.
No birdie injuries that I saw; will inspect them tonight.
Earthquakes are almost never significant in this area, so this was a big deal to us, although I’m sure the Californians are rolling their eyes.
I was at the gym and I thought I heard ‘thunder’ and the TV screens could be seen to shake, just a little bit.
I didn’t think anything of it until some other members gathered around a TV screen. One was the front desk guy who said that some stuff fell off the shelves in the back. I find that hard to believe, but I didn’t really care enough to press him. He seemed to be sensationalizing it with the other members.
The only earthquake I recall experiencing (despite living in San Diego for 2 years) was in Sicily. *Picture it, Sicily, 1983… * 
Anyway, Etna had been erupting, and I was awakened by the sensation that someone was kicking the foot of my bed. I assumed it was a dream and went back to sleep. Next morning, I noticed some items from the top of my closet were on the floor, and realized what had happened. I expect today’s temblor was like that.
But we felt nothing in Southern MD, and the only noise from our dogs amounted to “Time to go out and peeeeeeeeee!!”
I was awake and thought a fully-loaded dump truck had gone by – it was exactly that thumping feeling you get when heavy construction equipment goes by or on a bridge span when the traffic’s heavy on the other side… a sort of basso profundo rumble in the ground, very brief. I actually got up to see which of my neighbors was starting an unannounced construction project, but there was nothing to see outside.
The news started talking about it fifteen minutes later.
I woke up my wife, a veteran of the Dominican Republic’s seismic activity, who laughed at the news of a mere 3.6 and went back to sleep.
I woke up at some point really early this morning and thought there was an airplane or helicopter flying really low or the window a/c was making more noise than usual. Then I fell back asleep. So, maybe I heard the earthquake, or maybe the a/c was loud.
I didn’t feel anything shaking, but I was in a very sleepy daze.
When the Californians wake up, they’re going to come in here and call us wimps…
A co-worker tells me we had a similar tremor in 2008. I don’t remember feeling it or even hearing about it.
Yah, I don’t remember the 2008 either. Nor did I notice this one. I feel disappointed.
yeah we felt it up by Baltimore too. Woke us both up. I thought it was a low flying jet; it rattled the closet doors and ceiling fan a bit.
We both rolled over and went back to sleep. My wife was the one who suggested it was an earthquake; I remember saying “yeah, sure.” and then zonked out.
Interestingly that’s my third east coast earthquake I remember experiencing!
I apparently slept right through it which surprises me. I have a hard time sleeping through much of anything. I did sleep with earplugs in last night, though.
When I moved to southern California the thing that most surprised me about earthquakes was the sound. No one had really mentioned that.
On the other hand, on our most recent really rainy night I was woken from a deep sleep by the absolute most thunderous thunder I’ve ever heard. That rattled the windows. It sounded pretty apocalyptic.
WIMPS! ALL OF YOU!
Seriously though, I’m near Baltimore now and didn’t feel a thing. I grew up in Southern California. I lived in Northridge during the 1994 quake. My building was fine. The one next to me slid off its foundation (something about how the wave hit).
I had also driven over the collapsed freeway about 4 hours prior. That was the scary part.
3.6? That’s a dog fart.
<exits muttering…>
Didn’t feel a thing, and it occurred between snooze alarms for me. Forgot, my location no longer shows… Baltimore here.
Nope, she slept through it. And is equally amused at the overblown news reports.
I was about to come in here and say, wow I was even awake (sort of - near-dozing) at the time and didn’t notice, but then I read your post and remembered that my budgies did the same thing too around that time! I didn’t feel or hear anything* except them both panicking and flying madly around the cage for seemingly no reason whatsoever. That’s unheard of for them, so maybe this is why.
*granted, I wear earplugs