Magnitude 3.9 VIRGINIA
2003 May 05 16:32:32 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Magnitude | 3.9 | ||
Date-Time |
Monday, May 05, 2003 at 16:32:32 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time Monday, May 05, 2003 at 12:32:32 PM local time at epicenter Monday, May 05, 2003 at 01:32:32 PM (ADT) - Atlantic Daylight Monday, May 05, 2003 at 12:32:32 PM (EDT) - Eastern Daylight Monday, May 05, 2003 at 12:32:32 PM (AST) - Atlantic Standard Monday, May 05, 2003 at 11:32:32 AM (CDT) - Central Daylight Monday, May 05, 2003 at 11:32:32 AM (EST) - Eastern Standard Monday, May 05, 2003 at 10:32:32 AM (MDT) - Mountain Daylight Monday, May 05, 2003 at 10:32:32 AM (CST) - Central Standard Monday, May 05, 2003 at 09:32:32 AM (PDT) - Pacific Daylight Monday, May 05, 2003 at 09:32:32 AM (MST) - Mountain Standard Monday, May 05, 2003 at 08:32:32 AM (AKDT) - Alaska Daylight Monday, May 05, 2003 at 07:32:32 AM (AHDT) - Aleutian Daylight Monday, May 05, 2003 at 06:32:32 AM (HST) - Hawaii |
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Location | 37.72N 78.08W | ||
Depth | 5.0 kilometers | ||
Region | VIRGINIA | ||
Reference |
50 km (30 miles) SE of Charlottesville, Virginia 55 km (35 miles) NNE of Farmville, Virginia 55 km (35 miles) WNW of RICHMOND, Virginia 80 km (50 miles) NW of Petersburg, Virginia |
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Location Quality | Error estimate: horizontal +/- 13.1 km; depth fixed by location program | ||
Location Quality Parameters |
Nst=13, Nph=13, Dmin=82.2 km, Rmss=0.92 sec, Erho=13.1 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=152.5 degrees | ||
Source | USGS NEIC | ||
Remarks | Felt (IV) at Columbia, Fork Union, Gordonsville, Kents Store, Palmyra and Sandy Hook; (III) at Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Louisa, Locust Grove, Mineral, Spotsylvania and Washington, DC. Also felt in parts of Maryland. |
EARTHQUAKES IN THE CENTRAL VIRGINIA SEISMIC ZONE
Earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S., although less frequent than in the western U.S., are typically felt over a much broader region. East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast. A magnitude 4.0 eastern U.S. earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 100 km (60 mi) from where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source. A magnitude 5.5 eastern U.S. earthquake usually can be felt as far as 500 km (300 mi) from where it occurred, and sometimes causes damage out to 40 km (25 mi).
FAULTS
At well-studied plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault system in California, often scientists can determine the name of the specific fault that is responsible for an earthquake. In contrast, east of the Rocky Mountains this is rarely the case. The Central Virginia seismic zone is far from the nearest plate boundaries, which are in the center of the Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea. The seismic zone is laced with known faults but numerous smaller or deeply buried faults remain undetected. Even the known faults are poorly located at earthquake depths. Accordingly, few, if any, earthquakes in the seismic zone can be linked to named faults. It is difficult to determine if a known fault is still active and could slip and cause an earthquake. As in most other areas east of the Rockies, the best guide to earthquake hazards in the seismic zone is the earthquakes themselves.
EARTHQUAKE TRIGGERING
There are no examples of earthquake triggering between events as small and as distant from each other as the recent events in Arkansas, Alabama, and Virginia. Therefor, the close spacing in time of these events is believed to be purely random.
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Did You Feel It?
Theoretical P-Wave Travel Times
Earthquake Information for VIRGINIA Earthquakes: Frequently Asked Questions
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NB:
The region name is an automatically generated name
from the Flinn-Engdahl (F-E) seismic and geographical regionalization scheme.
The boundaries of
these regions are defined at one-degree intervals and therefore differ from
irregular political boundaries.
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