Earthquake near DC 3

[Teguci]

5.8 mag earthquake on the east coast.

 

[JLNJ]

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/

Felt it here in Northwest Ohio.

 

[racookpe1978]

Latest reports have people reporting the earthquake from Mass and CT and NY all the way down to the Carolina's.

The North Anna nuclear plants near the epicenter are reported shutdown. Probably automatically. 5.5 is really pretty minor to industrial facilities, but structural and residential framing and masonry, painting, trim, plaster over lathe, and drywall cracking will likely be very large.

 

[msquared48]

This event makes my point in another forum string here that I made a few days ago - regarding eliminating the seismic requirement in Florida.



Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[hokie66]

Why did you do it, Mike? Pretty drastic way to make your point.

 

[ash060]

msquared - lets not get ahead of ourselves, I didn't feel any earthquake down here in the Sunshine State

 

[sandman21]

@ash This quake was not on the real problem fault the New Madrid, that sure how much of an issue but I would not rule it out because of this one.

 

[bridgebuster]

Finally got to experience a quake; I work in NYC. In 1985 we had a 4.5 about 25 miles north NYC but I was in West Virginia.

Interesting feeling.

 

[JAE]

I love this!!:

[blue]The Hill is reporting that the Park Service is stating there is no serious damage to any of D.C.'s national monuments:

U.S. Park Police in Washington made an initial survey of the city's monuments after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake and found no serious damage.

According to The Washington Post, [red]the Park Police checked the monuments by helicopter[/red] shortly after the earthquake on Tuesday.[/blue]

Yep - that is the proper procedure to check out a structure after an earthquake - get in the chopper with your binoculars and check it out!

 

[msquared48]

What gets me is that they evacuaated ... the PENTAGON ... after all that retrofitting over the last few years. God help us if the pentagon can't take a little 5.8.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[msquared48]

Oh, and ash060... Yea, I was a little off aim with my haarp.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[hokie66]

JAE,

Guess they couldn't see this from the choppper.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ENT?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

[abusementpark]

People are making a big deal about this 5.8 earthquake, but it doesn't sound like it caused any real structural damage. I practice in Louisiana where the largest we've ever had is 4.2, and yet seismic can still actually govern over wind in hurricane country.

Something is wrong with that.

 

[msquared48]

Not for a consrete structure with a low wind exposure in one direction...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[msquared48]

Or a concrete bridge...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[JAE]

hokie66,
Wow...they actually gave credit to "structural engineers" instead of using the term architect.

Not sure how a crack at the very tip top would be seismically induced but you never know. I'd expect cracks closer to the base, or maybe at mid-height.

 

[JoeBaseplate]

Having lived thru a 6.8, 6.4 and several 5+ earthquakes, looks like they are making a very big deal out of 5.8.

 

[bridgebuster]

The media is making a big deal about it because it's a rare occurrence. The 1985 EQ in NYS, was only a 4 (the epicenter was near a nuclear reactor)but it led to the requirement for seismic design in NY.

For years the seismic gurus were saying that most of the east coast would never experience anything higher than the mid-5's. Today the sky-is-falling crowd in NY is predicting a 7.0 is going to hit NYC.

Last night when I was leaving work, some people (not engineers) on the elevator were saying "we have to do something to stop these earthquakes."

 

[TomasAron]

@bridgebuster - I got a laugh out of that quote.

 

[hawkaz]

I heard a "news" report this morning where they found some professor and got him to say that New York City will crumble when the big one hits since the buildings were not designed to sway like California buildings are.

I guess they couldn't find an engineer who would say what they wanted to report- so they went to academia.

For the area impacted- 5.8 is obviously big (in California- they don't put down their coffee until a minimum 6.0), but I would bet that for 95% of the buildings, the seismic load didn't approach the wind load the buildings were designed for. The primary buildings where I would expect to see structural damage to would consist of un-reinforced brick walls that were not designed to current codes or buildings that were not constructed properly.