On Tuesday afternoon at 1:51 p.m., the US Geological Survey said that a 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Mineral, Virginia. The quake was four miles deep and prompted officials to shut down the nuclear power plant for safety reasons. After the destructive earthquake in Japan that damaged their nuclear power plants and spread radiation across their country, this was the right thing to do. The North Anna Nuclear Power Plant in Louisa was safely shut down and there is no sign of damage or radiation leak at this time.
The Pentagon suffered flooding in two corridors after a water main broke during the violet shaking of the building. It was thought that the building was under attack from terrorists.
In Washington, all parks and national monuments were shut down for safety precautions. The National Cathedral, the highest point in Washington, suffered damage from the quake in which three capstones fell from the structure and Washington's Reagan National Airport was evacuated due to a gas odor.
The 555-foot-tall Washington Monument was no match for the shaking earth either. It suffered cracks at the top of the structure and is shut down for an extended period of time until repairs can be done to it.
The White House was evacuated along with many other official building, museums and taller structures in the city. The series of quakes that seemed to roll across the United States were felt from Chicago to the East Coast to Atlanta, Georgia and all the way to Toronto, Canada. This is the strongest earthquake on the East Coast in 67 years!
So is this a series of earthquakes rocking our planet? There has been a rash of them this week. On Monday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 hit Colorado. Then yesterday, a 5.8 magnitude quake hit Virginia. Now today, Wednesday, another hits Peru with a 7.0 magnitude. Does it indicate the earths plates are all shifting? Are more earthquakes to follow? Is it a coincidence that three quakes would hit in just 48 hours? According to the Live Science website, this isn't the case. They report that, "The question comes up all the time," said David Schwartz, an earthquake geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), "but these three earthquakes are completely unrelated."
So the question often asked that remains to be answered is, "Why earthquakes can be felt so far on the East Coast?" The answer is solid rock. That's right, due to the condensed, hard bedrock, the shock is able to travel smoothly through the rock without interruption. Unlike areas with cracks and holes that will slow down the shock, this area is like one continuous concrete pour. Think of it like a skateboard on a sidewalk with cracks and holes in it. Of course, the cracks and holes will slow you down, but having a smooth surface with no obstructions, you'll travel for long distances without stopping.
