Earthquake!

     Tuesday afternoon I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, working at my computer.  Suddenly, my monitor began to wobble and a bookcase began shaking and hitting the wall.  In fact, the whole room shook a little bit.  It didn't last long, but it was something I'd never felt before.  Others in my house felt it, too.  We quickly found out it was an earthquake!

     The eipcenter of the earthquake was in Mineral, VA.  This 5.8 quake was felt as far north as Canada, and as far south as South Carolina, maybe even into Georgia; as far west as Ohio and all through the New England states.  We felt some tremors here afterwards and there have been aftershocks, too.  This was  the strongest earthquake to hit the east coast since 1944 when one took place in New York.

     Helicopters flew around the Washington Monument soon after the quake, looking for damage, and sure enough they found some cracks in the upper portion of the monument.  The monument is closed for now.