# Earthquake in Maryland/DC area **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 16, 2010, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892 "2010-07-16T10:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/21 "2010-07-16T15:19:15Z")
> [@gwendee](#): > > When I moved to southern California the thing that most surprised me about earthquakes was the sound. No one had really mentioned that. You know everyone here at work has been talking about it and says the same thing, I didn’t hear a thing, just felt the bed move, and I’m only a mile or two from the epicenter. > [@](#): > > 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. Wimp. 😃 I don’t even wake up for those kinds of storms. Wait until the tornadoes and hail come through. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/22 "2010-07-16T16:55:39Z")
Man, glad I moved away from that cloven, twisted landscape. So I guess R.E.M. was right. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/23 "2010-07-16T17:20:35Z")
I was asleep in Rockville about 10 miles from the epicenter. I woke up to a banging sound and felt a slight tremor. The banging sound may have been caused by a large hanging mirror. I woke up my wife who slept though it and we turned on the radio (WAMU) to see if there was anything about it (which there wasn’t immediately after), then went back to sleep. I’m glad I woke up for this one. I was in a 5.6 magnitude in Portland OR in 1993 but slept through the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/24 "2010-07-16T17:29:56Z")
Don’t depend on WAMU for breaking news…on 9/11, I remember them not being particularly quick to report goings on. Not a good time for hearing one of their speech-impeded reporters nattering on about some puff piece… ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/25 "2010-07-16T18:00:18Z")
I was half woken up by the rumbling sound and then felt the bed shake a little. I’m from the midwest, so my first thought was “tornado”, but as soon as I realized it wasn’t that (and whatever it was, it was over), I went back to sleep. Overall, nothing to write home about. I’ve never felt one before, though, so that was kind of neat. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/26 "2010-07-16T18:39:45Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > When the Californians wake up, they’re going to come in here and call us wimps… You’re wimps. Basically, an earthquake under 6.0 on the Richter scale isn’t even worth noticing. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/27 "2010-07-17T06:29:07Z")
It woke me up to, but I didn’t realize it was an earthquake, I just heard a loud roar like a military fighter jet. Not even sure how long it lasted since I was so groggy. I always fear it’s an incoming missile when I hear noises like this and the end of the world (paranoia), so I checked CNN on my Blackberry by my bed just in case, then fell back to sleep and would have forgotten about it entirely if not for mention on the news. 3.6 isn’t very big, sure, but this is not a seismically active part of the world and it was the largest in this area in at least 35 years. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/28 "2010-07-17T06:47:02Z")
Even a small quake can feel big if you’re near the epicenter. The depth of the quake and the type of soil your building is on can also make the quake seem bigger or smaller. Here in California we design buildings to withstand earthquakes. That’s one reason why you don’t see many brick buildings here - brick isn’t very resistant to shear forces. The back-and-forth motion of a quake can break a brick wall. The same is true of many other types of masonry. I would expect a quake of magnitude 5 or greater to do some serious damage in a place like Maryland. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/29 "2010-07-17T08:15:38Z")
The smallest quake I ever felt was a 2.1 (in California). It was early morning morning when it woke me up. It didn’t last more than a few seconds (funky noise). I wasn’t sure it _was_ a quake until I saw it in the afternoon paper which listed the quake and time; it corresponded exactly to my clock radio. The epicenter was literally within a few hundred yards of the house. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/30 "2010-07-17T09:43:41Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Not sure where the epicenter was exactly, but the press reports say 20 miles straight down under Gaithersburg. The epicenter is always a point on the surface. That’s what “epicenter” means–the point on the surface _above_ the center or “focus.” ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/31 "2010-07-18T01:13:17Z")
The hypocenter, on the other hand, is a three dimensional point underground where the earthquake started… ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/32 "2010-07-18T04:18:32Z")
We were woken up by the shaking and rumbling in Silver Spring. Mr. Q said he figured it must be a really big earthquake if we could feel it all the way in MD - assuming, of course, that earthquakes happen somewhere else. We were surprised to find out that it was a small earthquake so close. **Ataraxy** - I also checked cnn immediately to make sure that it was in fact an earthquake and not WWIII. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/33 "2010-07-18T05:17:24Z")
The U.S. Geological Survey has a [web page where you can find out about recent earthquakes](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/). ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/34 "2010-07-18T07:17:35Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > **Ataraxy** - I also checked cnn immediately to make sure that it was in fact an earthquake and not WWIII. Maybe it’s just me, but I think having the time and ability to check CNN would have tipped me off. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892/35 "2010-07-18T15:25:36Z")
That’s really odd. I woke up at about 5:05 this morning and I had no idea why. And I’m in New York. I wouldn’t think I could notice it from that distance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earthquake-in-maryland-dc-area/546892.md?page=1)