TACKLE the East Coast Earthquake

Seismogram  8/23/11  Cape Henry Collegiate School, VA Beach, VA

The world is buzzing with news.  Hurricane Irene is barreling through the Caribbean.  Libya is in turmoil.  Obama is golfing.   Now, Virginia is not just for lovers; Virginia is for tremors!

Stories of lamps falling, ground moving and cars rocking were told by East Coast residents.  

Mineral, VA was the epicenter for this 5.9 earthquake that hit August 23, 2011 at 1:51PM, the second largest in Virginia's history.  It occurred along the Spotsylvania fault and was felt up and down the entire east coast.


Listed below are the earthquakes with magnitude of 3.5 and greater, 1974 - 2003, according to  United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program

	State	Number of Earthquakes 1974-2003	Percent of Total
1.	Alaska	12053	57.2 %
2.	California	4895	23.2 %
3.	Hawaii	1533	7.3 %
4.	Nevada	778	3.7 %
5.	Washington	424	2.0 %
6.	Idaho	404	1.9 %
7.	Wyoming	217	1.0 %
8.	Montana	186	0.9 %
9.	Utah	139	0.7 %
10.	Oregon	73	0.3 %
11.	New Mexico	38	0.2 %
12.	Arkansas	34	0.2 %
13.	Arizona	32	0.2 %
14.	Colorado	24	0.1 %
15.	Tennessee	22	0.1 %
16.	Missouri	21
17.	Texas	20
18.	Illinois	17
19.	Oklahoma	17
20.	Maine	16
21.	New York	16
22.	Alabama	15
23.	Kentucky	15
24.	South Carolina	10
25.	South Dakota	10
26.	Virginia	10
27.	Nebraska	8
28.	Ohio	8
29.	Georgia	7
30.	Indiana	6
31.	New Hampshire	6
32.	Pennsylvania	6
33.	Kansas	4
34.	North Carolina	3
35.	Massachusetts	2
36.	Michigan	2
37.	Minnesota	2
38.	Mississippi	2
39.	New Jersey	2
40.	Louisiana	1
41.	Rhode Island	1
42.	West Virginia	1
43.	Connecticut	0
44.	Delaware	0
45.	Florida	0
46.	Iowa	0
47.	Maryland	0
48.	North Dakota	0
49.	Vermont	0
50.	Wisconsin	0
Total		21080

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California and Alaska are the country's leaders in earthquakes.  I lived in California for a year in the past and they feel 5+ quakes at least twice a year.  

East Coast residents are reactors.  They went through hell during the 9-11 attacks.  I am sure many people thought of the possibility of a terrorist attack when they were shaken by surprise.  Broken items and the precautionary shut down of nuclear reactors seem to be the worst of the outcome.  Thank goodness there were no deaths reported at this time.

My daughter was planning to go to Kings Dominion Amusement Park today.  A scheduling conflict cancelled their trip.  The Park is near Mineral, VA.  She sighed when she considered the possibility of riding on a roller coaster when the earth decided to shift 3.7 miles under the surface.