3.6 Earthquake Rattle Washington DC

Strange people said they heard a loud bang and then rumbling like a train - same thing happened during the earthquake in Chicago. (They both took place early in the morning).

I remember during the Utah mine collapse an earthquake registered - but it really wasn't an earthquake caused by normal shifting - it was the ground shaking because of the mine explosion.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
This was my first earthquake. Yes the Cali people can poke fun.

Actually It's the Alaskans who are laughting theis @sses off at your reaction to a 3.6.
After Earthquake wise next to them we Calis are lightweights.

Strongest quakes in state.
1964 Alaskan quake mag 9.2
1906 San Francisco Quake mag 7.8
2010 DC quake mag 3.6

Originally posted by nixie_nox
This was my first earthquake. Yes the Cali people can poke fun. But when you live in an area where they barely exist, it was quite frightening.

I heard a loud bang, and the house started shaking, windows started rattling.

Ever see a couple of hamsters or gerbils woken up? My husband and I were like huh. what? wth?

it was like a building sized truck was rumbling by.But we live on a dead end quiet road.

My first thought was a transformer blew up. Then I thought, omg it must be an earthquake, cuz it was so strange.

The bed shook for a minute. It took a long time. After about 45 seconds I thought: If it doesn't stop shaking, I might have to get a priest for an exorcism. *laughs*

I hope it is okay to block quote your post because I want to emphasize this was my experience of the quake as well. I was fully awake and at my desk in my home office when this took place. I was catching up on emails and I heard this horrific bang. I was out of my seat instantly and then the rumbling came from a distance and then under my feet. The California people can scoff but we really felt it and I was just at the right distance from the epicenter that I could see my window shaking in its frame. I have modern glass furniture so it was very alarming wondering how bad this would get and wondering if the furniture would crack. Fortunately it was all over even before I made it to the hallway to check on everyone else.

I had our cats in here with me and they all jumped and looked surprised but only as the quake happened. They showed no sign of awareness of it beforehand. My daughter's pet frog was the only animal that acted agitated prior to the event. He was in his little aquarium swimming erratically for about half an hour just prior. The cats calmed down and went back to sleep right after it was over. We have a dog but the dog was in a crate downstairs so I have no idea if the dog sensed anything beforehand. The dog calmed down quickly and went back to sleep afterward. We have lazy animals!

My husband had been shocked awake so he was there at the window trying to see if it was a military plane of some sort. We do sometimes get violently shaken by overhead military aircraft. But I knew this was not from overhead but from below.

To be an ATS reader who has read about earthquakes and yet lived in an area that never gets them and suddenly have it happen to me was a wake up call of the most shocking kind. It reinforced the idea to me that we are truly all in this together. I had the sudden realization that everything I was reading about in Fragile Earth was now right literally at my feet! If this part of Maryland can get shaken up like that, there really is no running or hiding from whatever is going on in the earth. And I do believe something is going on with it. My husband, however, says this is no big deal and the earth has always rumbled, is always rumbling and will always rumble and it all means nothing "big" is around the corner. For once, I hope he's right and I'm wrong.

I do wonder about that loud bang or explosion we heard just before the quake. It sounded like something ripped apart underground. Basically the sequence I experienced was BANG, tearing earth sound...rumbling going from distant to under me to fading away. By the sound that I heard, I half expected to see a big rift in the ground open up but apparently all is well, thank goodness.