Earthquake

July 16, 2010 - 9:09am

WASHINGTON - A 3.6 magnitude earthquake woke the Washington metro region Friday, rattling homes and startling people.

The U.S. Geological Survey says it happened at exactly 5:04:49 a.m. about 3 miles under the earth's surface.

Right after it happened calls from all around Maryland, Northern Virginia and as far away as West Virginia started lighting up the WTOP newsroom phone lines.

"It was centered in the Germantown-Gaithersburg area," Randy Baldwin, a physicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Information Center, tells WTOP.

D.C. emergency services says there are no reports of any damage. No injuries have been reported. The utilities reported no problems. Metro also reported no problems.

Amy Vaughn with USGS says there is a world of difference between a California earthquake and an earthquake in Maryland. (Ms Vaughn lives in Maryland.)

"In California, a 3.6 is almost laughable, whereas out here it's huge news," Vaughn tells WTOP. "This can be felt in a larger area, like 10 times larger an area. And, that's based on geology."

Vaughn says because of the area's sedimentary mountain ranges energy spreads farther.

"When something shakes, it goes everywhere," says Jessica Sigala, a geophysicist with USGS, about earthquakes on the East Coast.

Sigala tells Federal News Radio the bedrock is different in the eastern U.S.

"I have heard from some people that they have felt aftershocks," Sigala says.

Preliminary reports from USGS said the earthquake was a 3.7.

* * * * *

Regular readers of this site will recall that we reported last January on various foreign fools blaming the devastating Haiti earthquake on Dick Cheney's unauthorized and inaccurate wielding of the HAARP system to bring down the obuma administration.

I am pleased now to announce that Mister Cheney has the system under control and working perfectly. He anticipates one more shot to finalize the azimuth and range adjustments, and then he will crank up the power and fire for effect.

Copyright EnemyoftheState 2010. This work may be freely copied and disseminated by anyone except AP. I proclaim ownership of all words and punctuation marks used in this article. If AP uses any individual word contained in this article, I will sue the company jointly and individually down to interns, clerks and janitors.

If you don't think Cheney will do it, you don't know Dick!

Do ya feel lucky, punk?