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Bankrobber
12-09-2003, 17:39
There was an earthquake that registered at 4.5 on the Richter Scale in Virginia today. I live in Charlottesville (20 miles from Rockfish Gap). I thought my heater was about to explode.
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/

Hikerhead
12-09-2003, 18:46
I didn't feel it....but I'm a little shaky anyway.

steve hiker
12-09-2003, 18:54
There was an earthquake that registered at 4.5 on the Richter Scale in Virginia today.
4.5? That was a bus rumbling by.

Virginian
12-09-2003, 22:58
I work in Richmond and didnt even feel it.

Skyline
12-09-2003, 23:09
I was in the post office in Luray about 4:20pm and heard people talking about it; they apparently felt the power. I didn't, just a few miles north, at 3:59pm when it is said to have happened.

Moon Monster
12-10-2003, 21:52
I felt it and had my desk lamp rattle while I was on Whiteblaze no less. Turned CNN on right after it to make sure it wasn't New Madrid going off. I'm just north of Greensboro, NC.

Bankrobber
12-10-2003, 23:03
Here is an article a friend sent me about an 1897 earthquake in SW VA. It looks like the epicenter was Pearisburg.

Giles County, Virginia
1897 05 31 18:58 UTC
Magnitude 5.60
Intensity VIII

This earthquake was the largest in intensity and aerial extent in Virginia
in historical times. MM intensity VII to VIII extended over an elliptical
area - from near Lynchburg, Virginia, west to Bluefield, West Virginia, and
from Giles County south to Bristol, Tennessee. The MM intensity VIII
assigned to this earthquake is based on "many downed chimneys" and "changes
in the flow of springs."

The shock was felt severely at Narrows, about 3 kilometers west of
Pearisburg. Here, the surface rolled in an undulating motion, water in
springs became muddy, and water in some springs ceased to flow. The flow of
water in springs also was disturbed in the area of Pearisburg, about 70
kilometers west of Roanoke, and Sugar Run.

The shock was strong at Pearisburg, where walls of old brick houses were
cracked and many chimneys were thrown down or badly damaged. Many chimneys
also were shaken down at Bedford, Pulaski, Radford, and Roanoke, Virginia,
and Bristol, Tennessee; many chimneys were damaged at Christiansburg,
Dublin, Floyd, Houston, Lexington, Lynchburg, Rocky Mount, Salem, Tazewell,
and Wytheville, Virginia; Charlotte, Oxford, Raleigh, and Winston, North
Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Bluefield, West Virginia. Felt from
Georgia to Pennsylvania and from the Atlantic coast westward to Indiana and
Kentucky. Aftershocks continued through June 6, 1897.