That's right, everyone, today I felt my first earthquake. I've still got a ways to go if I'm going to catch up with little brother Michael on his mission in CA, but I can now officially add "1 Earthquake Felt" to my tally.
We were all sitting around at work, a little after lunch, when the building shook. Not outrageously, mind you, but it was a different sort of shake than the building construction ones we frequently feel in my office. After the thundery-rumble, everyone goes silent (thinking "was that just in my head?"). Then one by one we each poked our heads out from our offices and said "Did you hear that? Did you feel that?" It was kind of freaky, seeing as how this area is sort of notorious for terorrist threats and the like. But we waited, didn't hear any sirens, and figured.....well, we couldn't really figure anything. Bizarre.
Then the local news reported a 1.8 magnitude quake with the epicenter in Annandale (a few miles south). And if you don't believe me (I probably wouldn't), here's an official link from a .gov site:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/ld1022071.php#details
If that was a 1.8, I can't image what a 5 or 6, much less a 7, 8, or 9 would be like.
And here is a cool map of folks reporting what they felt.
I have to admit, when stuff like that happens around here, it makes me part nervous, part grateful that nothing came of it, part wishing the POTUS and I weren't such close neighbors, and part thinking I should prepare my soul a bit more :)
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