Earthquakes Shake Entire United States (UPDATING LIVE)

A string of earthquakes has just struck the entire United States of America. Our offices just shook—as did many in states across the country. We'll be updating the story as it develops.
Update: Colorado was hit with a 5.3 magnitude quake—its largest in 40 years.
Update 2: T-Mobile and AT&T's cell networks are confirmed jammed for us in Manhattan. Some Verizon users having trouble too.
Update 3: WaPo reports the epicenter of the east coast quakes was in central Virginia—reaching all the way up to Boston.
Update 4: The Pentagon, White House, and Capitol have been evacuated. GET TO DA CHOPPA!
Update 5: Could this be the first time the internet hit people before the actual earthquake did?
Update 6: The USGS has bumped up the Virginian earthquake to a 5.9.
Update 7: Gawker's Adrian Chen points out another clue of our rapidly self-destructing stupid internet society: the first instinct of many earthquake participants was to check-in on Foursquare!
Update 8: PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES: DO NOT WORRY, MICHELLE BACHMANN HAS OUR SHIT COVERED.
Update 9: Here's a detailed USGS report on the Virginian quake-splosion.
Update 10: If you felt the quakes, the USGS wants to know! Chime in with your survival stories.
Update 11: Oh look, the earthquake has its own cute little Tumblr already! That took less time than the duration of the earthquake. The world we live in.
Update 12: John from Brooklyn sends out this quake aftermath shot. The populace has taken to the streets! Will baseball bat sales spike again?



Sources - Gizmodo, USGS


Update 13: Thirdhand reports of a building collapsing in DC. Will keep you all posted on this.

Update 14: JFK might be shut—anyone heard anything else about closed airports?

Update 15: The USGS expects aftershocks.

VIDEO


Update 16: The USGS also says this is the biggest quake to roll out of Virginia since 1897. That's a long time ago! How would 19th century bloggers like me have found out about it in New York?
Update 17: JFK and Washington National airports are both confirmed closed.


Update 18: USGS says no tsunami expected. Phew.
Update 19: Virginia's North Anna nuclear plant auto-shutdown during the quake, but no damage is reported.



Here is some bad news: The earthquake was within 100 miles of 20 nuclear power plants.
Everyone everywhere is tweeting this dumb joke. Won't be so funny when the nuclear power plants explode.
Update 19: Just a reminder: don't call 911 to report the earthquake. They know. Unless you're having an emergency! Then, do.

Update 20: All NYC-area public transit is A-OK.

Update 22: USA Today reports the shocks were felt as far north as Ottawa.

Update 23: Reader Cristobal sent in this shot of the evacuations surrounding New York City Hall.


Update 24: Holy shit: a large chunk from one of the National Cathedral's spires fell during the quake. This could have (but it appears, luckily, did not) killed a lot of people.



Update 25: The NYO quotes a vulcanologist who says not to expect aftershocks.

Update 26: T-Mobile's contacted us with the following statement regarding the general fucked-upedness of cell phone networks at the moment:

T-Mobile's network is experiencing higher call volumes in all areas and counties affected by the earthquake. If customers are experiencing temporary difficultly placing calls due to network congestion, we advise them to use SMS or E-Mail until call volumes return to normal.
Update 27: Reader Daniel sent in this evacuation scene from Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Anyone feel anything?

nope. I'm thinking it's fake... unless you found al lthis on separate sources...

It's not fake. There have been reports on another forum I frequent about users feeling it, and at least 6 different sources have articles about it.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/08/23/Earthquake-hits-Va-nuclear-plant-briefly-down/UPI-73751314126322/?dailybrief
http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/virginia-earthquake-august-23-2011-quake-felt-dc-new-york-2828640.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Virginia_earthquake
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/08/23/quake-virginia.html

It's not fake. My phone service was fucked up because of it. (They sent out a Facebook message bout it)

I am on the east coast, but I didn't feel it... lol

at least you guys have Michelle Bachman to protect you:

Earthquakes don't scare me. Jesus speaks to me through our planet. Sometimes when I walk on the beach, I fantasize about tsunamis of blood.

I heard it was hitting new mexico, I'm in colorado I didn't feel anything

Edit: I take that back, last night my house was shaking a little like somebody was moving something heavy thru the house, it was so wierd, but I didn't remember it at first cuz it didn't last very long

Didn't feel a thing. Heard about it though. It apparently shook a lot of areas around me.

well see for me like I was listening to music and the desk in front of me started shaking and I could barely hear it, it was a low rumble, so I thought it was a water pipe or something shaking the house

wasn`t the earthquake you felt then. it happened today in the afternoon.

from what I know the colorado-new mexico one was about 18hrs ago, and the east coast one idk

ah, yeah. you`re right.

the only one they talk about on tv is the east coast one, which was this afternoon.
http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Minor-damage-from-magnitude-5-3-Colorado-quake-2136703.php

more derpquake news

Update 27: Reader Daniel sent in this evacuation scene from Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Update 28: Sprint's dittoing T-Mobile: stick to SMS.

Update 29: JFK and Newark are back in aerial business.
Update 30: Another evac shot from DC's crowded Farragut Square area, a federal employee-dense hood.

Update 31: Ten nuclear plants in four states have announced lowest-level emergency alerts.

Update 32: The Dow has recovered from its post-quake dip, and the New York Stock Exchanged never stopped trading. Capitalism laughs at your puny rattling, mother nature.

Update 33: Here's a peep at seismographical sensors at Virginia Tech. Bad vibrations.

Update 34: The quake's epicenter released the equivalent power of 10,676 tons of dynamite. Kaboom. NATURE!

Update 35: That Virginian nuclear power plant that shut down? It's designed to withstand a 5.9-6.1 magnitude quake. As in, exactly what we had today—had it been a tiny, tiny bit higher, we'd be writing a very different post right now.

Update 36: AT&T's confirmed to us that they're receiving a very large call volume as well, but no infrastructure damage—so you might want to stick to SMS if you're with them.
Update 37: CNN's live coverage from Washington DC, which saw a lot of people-in-the-streets scenes.

Update 38: The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal says the USGS' quake depth estimate is now at almost four miles below the Earth's surface.

Update 39: Looks like the quakes haven't affected the entire US, but rather the eastern seaboard, some minor seismic activity on the west coast, and that large shake in Colorado.

I just find it random that there was an earthquake here cuz the whole time I've lived here we've never had one.

I felt it. It shook here for about 5 seconds. Nothing major, but I didn't know what was going on because we never have them here.

I didn't feel anything.

I didn't feel anything.

No, me neither.

Sensational!

Nothing at all, I slept all day though so maybe this was a byproduct of my snoring. Sorry guys

I felt it, here. It was just a mild swaying for about 15 seconds when I was at work.

My girlfriend, 30 miles away at school in the middle of Pittsburgh, said it was a bit worse there. Lol, she was all alone in the science lab when it happened, too. Scared the crap out of her.

Strange. I'm in Pittsburgh too, but didn't even feel anything. Then again, I was a fairly long way aways from downtown. I thought people were overreacting to it at first since I didn't even feel a tremor.

I live about 45 miles north of Pittsburgh, and it shook the whole building at work. I heard on the news that there were tremors mush further north than me.

I didn't feel anything over here in Washington.