In Springfield, the quake prompted an informal evacuation at City Hall. Residents reported feeling the tremors at least as far north as Brattleboro, Vt.
AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteSusy Ward, center, and other office workers gather on the sidewalk in downtown Washington moments after an earthquake shook the nation's capitol, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011. The 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Massachusetts and Vermont.
This is an update of a story first posted at 1:57 p.m. Tuesday
An earthquake called one of the strongest to hit the East Coast in a century sent tremors throughout the Northeast Tuesday afternoon, prompting building evacuations in Washington, New York and downtown Springfield but in the end causing only minor damage
Initial reports from the U.S. Geologic Survey placed the epicenter in Louisa, Virginia, 41 miles northwest from Richmond and 83 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. The quake was recorded at 1:51 p.m. at its epicenter.
Initially, the USGS said the quake had a magnitude of 5.9 but that has since been modified slightly to 5.8.
The last quake of equal power to strike the East Coast was in New York in 1944. The largest East Coast quake on record was a 7.3 that hit South Carolina in 1886. In 1897, a magnitude-5.9 quake was recorded at Giles County, Va., the largest on record in that state.
The quake forced evacuations of all the memorials and monuments on the National Mall in Washington and rattled nerves from South Carolina to Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island where President Barack Obama is vacationing.
Officials said the earthquake was half a mile deep and centered near Louisa, Va., about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. Numerous minor injuries have been reported in the Washington area.
The federal agency says more than 12 million people live close enough to the quake's epicenter to feel shaking.
There were no immediate reports of deaths, but fire officials in Washington said there were at least some injuries.
The National Cathedral said its central tower and three of its four corner spires were damaged, but the White House said advisers had told President Obama there were no reports of major damage to the nation's infrastructure, including airports and nuclear facilities.
Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station, in the same county as the epicenter, were automatically taken off line by safety systems, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In Springfield, the quake prompted an informal evacuation at City Hall. Residents reported feeling the tremors at least as far north as Brattleboro, Vt.
Thomas Walsh, spokesman for Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said city hall personnel evacuated the building as soon as they felt it start to shake.
“There was no damage but it did rock the building pretty good,” he said. Employees have since returned to the building.
Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger said all fire companies have been ordered to drive around their districts to look for damage. There have been no reports of damage so far, he said.
Springfield police are doing much the same, said Cadet Melissa Rodriguez said. “Right now they are just trying to assess if there has been any damage,” she said. Holyoke police said they felt it on the Appleton Street headquarters and got a lot of calls shortly afterward but there was no reported damage. Westfield police said they received about a half-dozen calls from residents inquiring about the earthquake. “Other than that no damage, no issues,” Capt. Hippolito Nunez said.
Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said the agency received several dozen calls in the minutes after the tremors were felt. "We have received no reports of injuries or significant structural damage from any of the emergency callers," Procopio said. "Our dispatchers are advising callers about the earthquake, which was centered in Virginia, and checking to ensure they are not injured."
Peter D. Crowley, a professor of geology at Amherst College and director of the college’s museum of natural history, said the long, rolling waves felt by most people are characteristic of an earthquake that was a long way away.
“With students, I liken it to the guy down the hall with loud music. All you hear is the base,” Crowley said. “We were so far away, all the other stuff was dampened out. We probably just got the surface waves from it.”
Crowley said the quake lasted longer than even he expected it to.
Michael T. Hagerty, seismologist and manager of Boston College’s New England Seismic Network, said equipment at the Quabbin Reservoir was still measuring seismic waves an hour after the quake hit.
Hagerty, who holds a doctorate in geology, said the surface of the earth moved as fast as a millimeter a second here in Western Massachusetts. He’ll know more about exactly how intensely the quake was felt here after he does more calculations.
“Honestly, I think it was the most significant earthquake on the East Coast in the last 100 years,” he said from Boston College’s observatory in Weston.
USGS graphic
Energy from the epicenter in Virginia reached Massachusetts because the earth’s crust on the East Coast is older and colder than the earth’s crust on the earthquake-prone West Coast.
State police throughout Western Massachusetts, including those attached to Quabbin barracks in Belchertown, where tremors were not felt, said they were not aware of any damage.
“The building was shaking and my clipboards were flapping,” said Sgt. Alan Joubert, who is attached to the Springfield barracks. “To my knowledge there was no damage anywhere.”
In Northampton, the earthquake was strong enough for some people to notice but not enough to do any damage. Department of Public Works Director Edward S. Huntley said he felt it in his Locust Street office and called the Water Department to see if there was any pressure lost because of broken water mains. No damage was reported, however.
Steve Weinstock of New Jersey was in Sylvester’s Restaurant when the tremors hit around 2 p.m. and said one whole side of the floor was moving.
“We all looked at each other and said, ‘Is the Earth moving?’” he said.
Vendors at the Tuesday Farmers Market outside Thornes Marketplace said they felt nothing, but inside Thornes the tremors were noticeable. Mark Palmer, who works at Cornucopia Foods said he felt a “gentle rocking back and forth.” Ted Forance, a California resident who has experienced earthquakes there, said he knew what was happening right away.
“It was definitely a quake,” he said.
Residents around the region were shocked to feel the earth shifting underfoot. "I thought I was having a vertigo attack. Except the whole building shook," said Joanne Avezzie, who works at the Berkshire Insurance Group in Longmeadow.
“I was sitting here watching TV, and my chair felt like it was starting to fly,’’ said Jeanie Underwood of Springfield. “I thought the house was going to fall down.”
"I was sitting here in my chair and it started rocking ... and I don't have a rocker," said another woman, who declined to give her name, from her home in East Springfield.
Chicopee police Capt. Daniel Sullivan said his department has received a number of calls but there have been no reports of injury or damage.
At the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow employees and inmates felt buildings shake but there were no serious concerns.
“There was no structural damage. We just felt a rumble,” said Richard J. McCarthy, public affairs officer for the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department at Hampden Correctional Center in Ludlow.
Laura Chipkin of Arlington, Va., formerly of Springfield – now a lawyer in a Washington D.C. – responded to an email from her mother in Springfield, saying the earthquake shook the building where she works. The building -- and others across the nation’s capital – were evacuated. Chipkin, who was unhurt, said the earthquake was “scary,” adding that “it wasn’t subtle.” No one is being allowed back in buildings and Chipkin anticipates that getting out of the city tonight is going to be “a nightmare.”
Curt D. Robie, assistant vice president for facilities and operations at Westfield State University said none of the university’s buildings were damaged.
“It was some side shaking that lasted several seconds,” he said.
He pointed out that at least two Westfield State buildings were built as bomb shelters in the 1950s.
“In those buildings, staff didn’t even feel a thing,” Robie said.
Management at the Longmeadow Country Club said that while serving lunch, the whole building started to sway.
The USGS is soliciting information from citizens with its online "Did you feel it?" application, available here.
A magnitude 5.3 quake hit at 11:46 p.m. MDT Monday about nine miles southwest of Trinidad, or 180 miles south of Denver, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden. It had an estimated depth of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) and was felt in a relatively large area of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
This report was compiled by staff at The Republican/Masslive and the Associated Press
View Earthquake epicenter in a larger map
To share your experiences or observations, comment below or email online@repub.com.