Earthquake in NC

[monsoon]

Looks as if we had an 3.8 magnitude earthquake in western North Carolina last night. Complete details can be seen at this link. We did not notice it here in Huntersville, but apparently it was quite noticeable north of I40 near Hot Springs.

[NCMike1981]

Yeah I heard we had a tiny fault line in NC that causes little earthquakes once in a while but nothing like what the west coast has...

[MR-2]

I only ever remember one earthquake in Chapel Hill. It was a few years ago (not sure how many), and the entire ground seemed to shake a foot for a split second before it was over.

[urbanesq]

I only ever remember one earthquake in Chapel Hill. It was a few years ago (not sure how many), and the entire ground seemed to shake a foot for a split second before it was over.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I remember something like that in Chapel Hill, but it was many, many years ago and probably had more to do with alcohol consumption than with seismic activity...

[Tayfromcarolina]

And many of us know of the Great Charleston, SC earthquake of the late 1800's. Lots of Damage there in Charleston. Chimneys fell and dishes broke and walls cracked in several major cities on the east coast including Raleigh, Richmond, and Columbia. I believe it was like a magnitude 8 or the Richter Scale.

[StevenRocks]

We had an earthquae in my neck of the woods in December 2003. I was home sick from work that day and nobody was there with me when it happened. I thought I was losing my mind

[Spartan]

Yeah, our local FOX station (WHNS) broke into its regular programming last night to tell people this. They then proceeded to give everyone's story out on how they felt the tremor, and thought they were crazy. And of course, the only damage reported was a broken glass, so they begged everyone on live TV to send in pictures of it. It was quite amusing

According to that map, I should, have felt it, yet I didnt feel anything. Weird. There were reports of it being felt as far south as Anderson.

There was a 3.0 in suburban Columbia in April.

[ngp]

Pfft.

A state isn't world class until it gets at least a 9.0 quake.

[A2]

Pfft.

A state isn't world class until it gets at least a 9.0 quake.

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A2

[DigitalSky]

It's amazing that a lot of people don't know about the small faultlines that the NC mountains have

[monsoon]

It's even more amazing that map has grown to include people from S. Atlanta calling in to claim they felt this quake.

[archiham04]

I felt the quake last night in our office in downtown Asheville. It was much more significant than I thought a 3.8 would be. The building really shook for about three seconds. The steel joists in our roof flexed several inches... enough to make the ceiling grid bounce noticably.

We are right next to a bar parking lot, so I thougt maybe one of the drunk patrons decided to play ram-man with the neighboring wall. I actually called the bar and asked them to meet me outside and inspect the damage.

We both kind of realized what had happened after a few minutes though.

crazy.

[DigitalSky]

It's even more amazing that map has grown to include people from S. Atlanta calling in to claim they felt this quake.   

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yeah the map has grown

[Dukeis#1]

A state isn't world class until it gets at least a 9.0 quake.

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No 9s here.

But...

In the early 1970s, there was a relatively strong quake in western North Carolina. It occured in the same area as the one yesterday, but was felt much farther north.

The foundation of my grandparents' house sports a large crack from it

[Roadgeek]

It's hard to believe there being an earthquake in NC. In my entire life, I've never felt an earthquake. Steven mentioned an earthquake near Richmond, Virgina in December of 2003 that was felt here in Greensboro. Everyone I talked to felt it but I didn't. I was thinking "What earthquake"?

[cityboi]

I remember central NC (Greensboro area) through central Virginia had a small earthquake last year. I remember feeilng the tremor in the office. I was up stairs, I could hear the noise of the building craking and it felt like floor was shaking a little.

[NCMike1981]

I've never felt an earthquake before, not that I'm complaining :-p

[Viper]

That Dec '03 quake in southern Virginia cracked 2 of my walls. I live at LAFB so I thought it was a big jet flying low at first but it really started shaking and the wall cracked. Lasted only about 6 seconds though.

[Jerseyman4]

Bumping this up for visibility, there was one a few days ago over in Winston-Salem, with a couple aftershocks a day or two later

[DigitalSky]

Aftershocks still happening

[davidals]

Looking at the USGS link above, looks as though the strongest quake recorded in NC was a 5.2 in 1916, centered near Waynesville.

The 2 notorious quakes in other states that did produce damage in NC was the 8.0-8.4 series of quakes in 1812 and 1813, centered in New Madrid, MO, which were felt in the 4.0-5.0 range across NC, and produced cracked windows and other minr damage in western and central NC. And the Charleston quake in 1886 (estimated to be 7.0 to 7.2) produced heacy damage to a radius of about 100 miles away from Charleston, minor damage across parts of both Carolinas and the NE half of GA, and was felt from Central FL to Delaware.

Other Eastern quakes to cause serious damage were in 1944 (a 5.8 quake along the NY/Ontario border), 1897 near Blacksburg VA (5.9 on the richter scale) and 1755 in Massachusetts (the "Cape Ann Quake", richter unknown, but heavy damage around the Boston area).

[suburban george3]

Another quake reported in the Winston-Salem area today! This one was a 2.4 near 11 am.

WSJ article about today's quake

USGS info on today's quake