I Kissed My Wife Today and She Felt the Earth Move … these Statements are both True

“I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky tumbling down , I feel my heart start to trembling, Whenever you’re around” – Carole King, I Feel the Earth Move

At 1:51 PM eastern time today a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit just outside the sleepy little town of Mineral, VA. Between 25 and 40 seconds later the shock wave rolled through Columbia, MD and gave us a good shake.

This is the third earthquake that I remember in the 11 years I’ve lived here. The other two were in the 4.0 or 4.5 range, and barely rattled windows. This one shook the buildings in a very noticeable way – and we’re some 120 miles from the epicenter.

Reports are all over the place regarding potential damage that authorities are checking out. (Most interesting is a theory that there may be some cracking in the Washington Monument.) We’ll see if any of these concerns turn out to be true.

The Washington Examiner carried a story with some amusing “tweets” in the aftermath. My favorites:

• Evidently the quake occurred on a little known fault line outside of DC called “Bush’s Fault”
• Obama administration points out they “inherited” fault lines from previous administrations
• As all of DC leaves work at the same time, the United States experiences a brief economic recovery

Also, I did see a report out in the aftermath that there was no fear of a tsunami. Umm, yeah – I doubt the few ponds surrounding Mineral don’t constitute enough water to gin up such a wave.

Up next – Hurricane Irene. This one won’t sneak up on us though.