Fox News is reporting that the 5.8 magnitude earthquake whose epicenter is being reported as Mineral, VA may have caused minor damage to the Washington DC Union Station.
The earthquake was felt up and down the eastern seaboard from Buffalo NY and Rhode Island, as far south as North Carolina, and as far west as Ohio.
I was lying in bed and my apartment building shook! They evacuate the junior high school next door. It was pretty amazing to feel it here.
Tens of thousands were evacuated from NYC and DC office buildings, airports temporarily shut down in NY and DC, and two nuclear reactors have been taken offline close to the epicenter.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
Here is a photo of the devastation from the DC quake:
(Sorry...I live in earthquake country) Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
Funny!
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Funny looking at the USGS map for earthquakes within the last weed and seeing only one big earthquake in the 10 degree by 10 degree square, a couple of small aftershocks and only a couple of other small ones elsewhere.
Let’s put this in perspective: In the 10 by 10 square that includes much of California, there were 354 quakes, with 7 being at 3.0 and above and none above 3.9.
Outside the US the USGS site only shows quakes of 4.0 or larger. If we look at the 10 by10 square that includes Sendai, it shows 23 quakes of 4.0 and above, with 4 of these being at 5.0 to 5.9 and 2 being above 6.0.
Of course there are three things that make this Virginia quake of note. 1. It is in an area that does not normally have quakes. 2. The affected area was huge. 3. It is in the area where government and media are concentrated.
Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :
Smitty,
I was 14 for the Sylmar quake (1971). I have to agree.
The term pole vaulting over mouse turds comes to mind.
Posted by dmwnc1959 (Member # 2803) on :
THANKS George for the perspective.
Sure, it was no Northridge or Indonesia or Japan, but it was the largest recorded earthquake in 114 years to hit Virginia. And it was felt over an extensive area of the east coast. Maybe this was a little wake up call to make us aware, and prepare, for future events.
Posted by Southwest Chief (Member # 1227) on :
Any word if the Trinidad, CO quake affected the Southwest Chief in any way?
Posted by dmwnc1959 (Member # 2803) on :
Anyone else who felt it can report their experience to the USGS
Select the VIRGINIA event with the MAGNITUDE 5.8 level (the main event, not the aftershocks) and EVENT TIME = 2011-08-23 17:51:04 UTC and EVENT ID = SE082311A Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
It's interesting watching the media and others get a little freaked out about something that is well known in the earthquake 'biz'. I got certified as an expert in earthquake emergency management in 1990 when I attended an intensive earthquake school at California Specialized Training Institute, which is an arm of the Governor's Office of the OES. It has been known for years and years that a big quake will hit both the midwest and the east coast, and this is certainly no surprise. Unfortunately, money and attention are paid to phony and questionable science (global warming), while real science (the coming earthquakes) continue getting ignored, year after year. In less than a week, people will forget about the mild quake that happened today. As a side note, the Richter Scale has been phased out for the most part---except for the news media in reporting the magnitude. Seismologists dumped Richter years ago, and now use other measurement methods.
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
The best earthquake joke:
"The LORD is punishing Washington for raising the debt limit ceiling. It's getting too close to his turf."
By the way, Smitty, it's been quite a while since the so-called lamestream media used the term "Richter scale." "Magnitude" is the term used. Once in a while an ignorant editor on a jerkwater town paper might change that to "on the Richter scale." But it does not happen often. The AP stylebook -- the Bible of most American newspapers -- mandates "magnitude X.X" for describing the intensity of a quake.
An editor on the Fredericksburg (Va.) paper wrote a blog about the issue of earthquake nomenclature. It's worth reading.
Posted by dmwnc1959 (Member # 2803) on :
When I was in the Navy the ammunition ship I was on was doing a replenishment exercise and the ship that came alongside approached too quickly. The vacuum of the water passing between ships pull us closer together and as the other ship attempted to maneuver away her stern swung closer. They then inexplicable accelerated, turned their bow cutting in front of us, and we collided. The two large ships shuttered, collision alarms sounded, and there were nice sized dents left on each ship. It wasn't the Titanic or Andrea Doria, but it was my experience.
When I was 10 years old we lived in Hattiesburg MS when Hurricane Camille came through. I remember being terrified and spending the night in the closet huddled with my brothers. Was it the same for someone who experienced Hurricane Andrew in Florida, Rita in Louisiana, or Hugo in North Carolina. No, but that was my experience.
I've hit typhoons off of the Philippines, car accidents that rolled and flipped, physical damage that required multiple surgeries, had friends and family members who have died from terminal illnesses, seen planes crash, been through flash floods that destroyed my apartment, and countless personal events that add to my life experience.
For years I've known folks who would listen to tales being told then say "That's nothing, if you thinks that's bad listen to happen to me".
I've seen the cute 'damage' pictures from yesterdays quake of tipped over yogurt cups and occupied beach chairs tipped over. But there was some damage to buildings, cars, homes, and public buildings in the closest proximity to the epicenter. Those folks may not think it funny.
Fox News's Shepard Smith made a point to immediately dismiss the event yesterday almost entirely and go right to a Live feed from a night shrouded Libya and then later Cavuto with an interview with Jeb Bush. People who experienced the event yesterday, no matter how small it was in the minds of others who have been through worse or thought it unimportant, wanted to know more. Nervous excitement and 'did you feel it' led to the desire to share their experience.
But to totally dismiss someone else's experience, no matter how insignificant you may feel it is compared to your own experiences, is unthoughtful and inconsiderate.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Henry Kisor: The best earthquake joke:
"The LORD is punishing Washington for raising the debt limit ceiling. It's getting too close to his turf."
By the way, Smitty, it's been quite a while since the so-called lamestream media used the term "Richter scale."
There's another joke going around but I forget exactly how it goes, but it has to do with Obama talking about the earthquake and that he is blaming it on "Bush's fault". I'm terrible at telling jokes so I won't even attempt it, but the one I saw earlier somewhere was pretty good.
Re: "Richter Scale".... I'm watching CNN and just a moment ago the Governor of Virginia held a news conference and talked about the earthquake and the Richter Scale. And in local news (they should know better here!) they are also referring to a Richter Scale reading. Knuckleheads...
(PS: I just ran a few searches. Fortunately, the AP followed correct procedure and I did not locate any stories in the last 7 days that used the term "Richter Scale". However, a Google search yields a slough of news stories referring to it).
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
The quake was felt in Cleveland. I was listening to the broadcast of the Seattle Mariners vs Cleveland baseball game and the announcers mentioned that there was some shaking going on. They pretty much laughed it off as a non-event (both are west coast guys). After the third out, the play-by-play announcer summarized the inning: "no runs, one hit, no errors, one earthquake and nobody left on base."
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
Okay, I found the joke online. Here is a copy/paste of it:
BREAKING NEWS!: President Obama has just confirmed that the DC earthquake occurred on a rare and obscure fault-line, apparently known as "Bush's Fault". Obama also announced that the Secret Service and Maxine Waters will continue an investigation of the quake's suspicious ties to the Tea Party. Conservatives, however, have proven that it was caused by the founding fathers rolling over in their graves.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
"Didn't feel a thing', but have felt others in the past here.
Since there are so many "Lefties' here, I DID feel Coalinga (1983). I was sitting aboard an aircraft at KSFO when it shook enough that the wings visibly 'flapped'. First reaction was a service vehicle "did a job and we will be delayed'. then the announcement there had been an earthquake and that the runways are closed until they can be inspected. After about an hour sitting on a half full DC-10 (drinks comp), the engines were fired up and the flight to KORD (about 20 min was recovered) was without further incident.
Posted by RRCHINA (Member # 1514) on :
While on the earthquake subject I presume AMTRAK has inspected Raton Tunnel which is within 15-20 miles from the Colorado quake epicenter. They are the only RR operation now using the track through Raton Pass.
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
To add to the damage, I heard the quake cost Obama a stroke on his golf game. The ball was rolling straight for the 13th hole, when the tremor hit, and the ball missed the hole by inches.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Allow it to be noted that Mineral VA is on the C&O (CSX) "route of the FFV" Newport News to Charlottesville. That is the line today over which Amtrak trains to Newport News are handled East of Richmond.
Here is a consist of the FFV when I rode it during September 1962.
Service did survive through Mineral (no stop) until A-Day. The George Washington did offer an NN-Cinci sleeper line (using the post-Pullman moniker of "Chessie Sleeper') and 'snack-dining' service whatever that may have been (a plank laid atop two reversed rows of Coach seats?).
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
Drove through Mineral once in early 1990 while taking a weekend 'explore' away from the Naval Amphibeous Base at Little Creek. I didn't see any trains but I recall seeing one of the traditional wood frame C&O depots (much in need of a coat of paint) and maybe even a semaphore signal still standing in a gentle curve. Don't remember if that was in Mineral or Louisa though.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
quote:Originally posted by smitty195: It's interesting watching the media and others get a little freaked out about something that is well known in the earthquake 'biz'. . . . . It has been known for years and years that a big quake will hit both the midwest and the east coast, and this is certainly no surprise. Unfortunately, money and attention are paid to phony and questionable science (global warming), while real science (the coming earthquakes) continue getting ignored, year after year.
Absolutely on the forgetting.
The news media ever so ofthe starts talking about the potential for major shakes on the New Madrid fault and the 1811 earthquake as if no one had ever heard of it. (For those not familiar, this earthquake resulted in the formation of Reelfoot Lake in the northwest corner of Tennessee.)
Guess what, everyone who has spent any significant part of their life within a couple hundred miles of the place and has an IQ above cabbage level has heard of it. We also know that there is the potential for another in the area, and it could be a very big one.
Let's not forget that there are aresa that could have significant volcanic activity. Mt. St. Helens was regarded as dormant for many years before it blew its top. Yellowstone is sittion on top of a HUGE lava dome. How else do you think they have geysers? Hot Springs, Arkansas has that name because of the hot springs, which means that there is heat close to the surface in central Arkansas.
A train connected thought: Missouri Pacific had a through Chicago to St. Louis sleeper into the early 1960's.
Posted by ehbowen (Member # 4317) on :
quote:Originally posted by George Harris: A train connected thought: Missouri Pacific had a through Chicago to St. Louis sleeper into the early 1960's.
George--did you mean Chicago to Hot Springs ( via GM&O to St. Louis)?
Posted by palmland (Member # 4344) on :
Several years ago we visited my sister in law near Hot Springs and one day went into Hot Springs and 'took the baths'. A great day trip town that is only just beginning to wake up. Great old buildings not yet gentrified including one of the original 'baths' using the hot springs. My attendant was an older white haired fellow. We of course talked about his days when customers arrived by train which he vividly recalled. Said they were usually good tippers. Not a bad getaway from Chicago - the overnight sleeper on the GM&O via MP St. Louis/Little Rock that George mentions.
Posted by Railroad Bob (Member # 3508) on :
I still hear "Richter" referred to pretty often; both on AM radio and absolutely from the talking heads on TeeVee... It drives me up the wall, since I have a Minor in Geology from a second-rate college and even way back then, we knew "magnitude" was the correct term. These are the same reporters who constantly mispronounce the capital city of China as Bay-zhing...that's just WRONG. It's Beijing with a "hard" clipped "j" sound. Ask your Chinese friends! Rant over//
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Eric: Yes.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
quote:Originally posted by Railroad Bob: These are the same reporters who constantly mispronounce the capital city of China as Bay-zhing...that's just WRONG. It's Beijing with a "hard" clipped "j" sound. Ask your Chinese friends! Rant over//
At least that is better than "Peking". I had one high school teacher that made the Peking/Beijing point, but at that time she was a voice crying in the wilderness. One of my first hints that textbook writers were not exactly at the top of their class in the subject of the textbook in question.
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
Then there are those Beijingese dogs.
One of the novelists who wrote for me at the old Chicago Daily News in the 1970s was an old Mandarin-speaking China hand from before World War II to some time after Chiang fell, and never forgave the world for switching to Pinyin.
"It's Peking, goddamnit!" he would cry. "Everybody knows it's Peking!" And his literary criticism of books about China would always cite Peking, and when I changed it to Beijing (as the stylebook required) he would cuss and carry on. Old habits die hard.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
quote:Originally posted by Henry Kisor: Then there are those Beijingese dogs.
One of the novelists who wrote for me at the old Chicago Daily News in the 1970s was an old Mandarin-speaking China hand from before World War II to some time after Chiang fell, and never forgave the world for switching to Pinyin.
"It's Peking, goddamnit!" he would cry. "Everybody knows it's Peking!" And his literary criticism of books about China would always cite Peking, and when I changed it to Beijing (as the stylebook required) he would cuss and carry on. Old habits die hard.
What we have here is a confusion between pronunciation and Romanization. While we are used to the thought that there may be more than one way to spell a word without changing pronunciation, in Chinese there are several ways of saying a written word, depending upon what language you are in. Thus, if he wanted to spell it Peking, it would still be said as bay jing by someone saying it in correct Mandarin.
What he was dealing with was the form of Romanization called Wade-Giles (if I remember correctly) rather than the Pinyin, which was, according to what I have heard, intended originally to have been conversion of Chinese writing from the characters to the Russian alphabet instead of to the Roman alphabet. This thought came to an end after Mao and Stalin had their falling out. Whether the “simplified” characters came out of this decision to not use the Russian alphabet or was supposed to be an intermediate step, I do not know. What I do know is that using our 26 letter alphabet to cover all the Mandarin sounds approaches and exercise in futility. There is a suspicion by more than a few people that the development of the simplified characters was to make the old literature difficult to read to improve the control of the government over what people could learn.
Once you can read a few characters, (and I can read only a few) you get some somewhat funny ah ha moments. The characters forming Beijing read “north capital”. Shanghai is “up sea” and Tokyo is “east capital”
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
Ding hao!
Posted by Railroad Bob (Member # 3508) on :
We should start a separate "interesting facts about the Chinese language" thread-- and I might be a guilty one who kicked the earthquake topic off the rail!
But to continue derailing, you still see the old word Peking appear in Chinese restaurants all over the world in combo with the word- "duck." (Waiter, please bring me an order of Peking Duck) sounds much better than bring me "Beijing Kaoya" --the true pinyin words for the famous dish...
And George, to add to your post, there is also Nanjing (means "southern Capital- which it was for awhile) Yunnan= south of the clouds; Baotou= package head; Heilongjiang= black dragon river, etc. There are tons of these fun compound words in Mandarin place names...
Modern pinyin does lack in many ways for helping one intonate the correct Mandarin tones, but I do think it's a big improvement over the old Wade-Giles or the Yale systems...and one last obscure fact-- there were a few years time between Peking and Beijing-- where the place was called PEIPING! This was mostly used (by the West) after the fall of the Qing around 1911 and before "liberation" (their word) and the proclamation of the PRC by Chairman Mao on 10/1/49. The simplified characters began to show up during the next couple of decades; on the orders of Mao. It's interesting that Taiwan has kept the traditional multi-stroke characters to this day, right George? OK- I'm done; sorry for derail but this seems to be an interesting subject for many of us! I've tangled with Mandarin for years, w/o much success. Yes Henry- wo ting de hao! Ni mingbai ma?
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
P.S. Amtrak doesn't go there. I checked.
Posted by cubzo (Member # 4700) on :
Amtrak? What's Amtrak?
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Railroad Bob:
Yes, I knew a few of these you mentioned. And you put in several I did not know.
Yes, Taiwan (and Hong Kong so far)has kept the traditional characters. And they fully intend to continue to do so. As they say in explaining the difference, the simplified characters take the heart out of love. The do a lot of other things that take the meaning prompts out of the characters.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
