I didn't get sent home and I work in a chemical plant. :icon17:

We evacuated for like 20 mins then went back to work :p

I work 25 miles west of DC and it lasted about 30-40 seconds. For the first 25 seconds it kind of rumbled a little bit (enough to realize that it wasn't construction on the floor below) and then it shook pretty violently for about 5 seconds (I could see the building shifting laterally back and forth) and then about another 5-10 seconds of the rumbling again. I will also note that I was on the 5th floor of my building, so I dont know if that provided me with a different experience than others in the area. BTW, I stayed at work afterwards!

Lucky! At least you get some fresh air. I was smack dab in the middle of a meeting with several VP's when a 5.0 hit. After the shaking was over, one of the VP's politely says "please continue to elaborate on why this project is going to cost us an additional $500K?" Everyone laughed and the meeting continued. No evac for 20 mins or anything!

Being on the 5th floor, did you get that dizzy sensation?

Hahaha, that sucks man. Yeah they wanted to make sure everything was ok in the plant first before they let us back in.

i was on a 3rd floor - thought the roof might come in for a while. also, it was a 5.8 in california that brought down some overpasses east of san diego... so it's all about the structures and the type of waves generated.

This is a repost of mine from another thread but I didn't see this one... Here is where we were!

We were on the road today driving our son to JMU. We were almost on top of the reported epicenter when the earthquake hit. We were in the Xterra and it felt like the tires were following ruts in the road. I really didn't think too much about it until we heard on the radio that it had hit the town we had just past. Pretty crazy. It would have felt a little different in the Z, I bet.

Good luck to all of us along the coast! Now let's get ready for the hurricane!

I thought I was losing my mind because I know I responded to your post but couldn't figure out where it went. Different thread!

I was having sex when it happened and for a second I was confused of this new pounding power I was producing..

:icon18:

7.0 quake releases about 900 times more energy than a magnitude 5.0 tremor.

Difference between a 5.8 and a 7 is much smaller though.
7.0 = 2 petajoules = 2x10^15 joules
5.8 = 32 terajoules = 32x10^12 joules

So a 7 releases about 62.5 times more energy than a 5.8

:icon17: