Today a small earthquake, centered in Germantown, Md occurred at 5:04 a.m. Its vibrations were felt from West Virginia to Bridgeport, Connecticut. The earthquake registered 3.6 on the Richter scale. When I heard it, I thought it was my refrigerator that was already on the fritz, making weird noises, having a quick spike in the amount of weird noises it was making. It lasted only a couple of seconds, so I didn’t think much of it till I turned on the TV and the radio, and everyone was talking about it. Having others talking about it validated what had occurred since many people weren’t sure they heard what they had heard.
Emergency call centers in Maryland experienced a 300% spike in call volume but no major damage was done. Some few trees reportedly fell and some plates broke. I’m sure Californians are laughing at Marylanders saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” I guess that’s life, if you are used to something because it occurs frequently, you don’t pay it much attention, but if something rarely happens, when it does occur, it’s a big deal.
The first picture shows that the earthquake centered near (depicted by the star) Germantown, Md. Light blue areas indicate weak vibrations felt in various areas surrounding the quake. Credit: USGS
The second picture is a visible image of Maryland as seen by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite. The circle indicates the area of the earthquake's center. Credit: NASA/SSAI, Robert Simmon
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