Looks like another 4.5 Earthquake (aftershock or pre shock to a larger event??) centred around 6 miles away from the Anna Nuclear Plant.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/usc0005jg1.php

The City Dock area of downtown Annapolis floods fairly frequently, even at high tides when the wind is right; it is very low. The saving grace is that the surrounding areas rise quickly from the level of the bay; Main Street, which runs from city dock to the state Capital Building, rises very quickly; a reasonably steep but short walk.

Business owners in the area immediately adjacent to the docks are practiced in sand bagging and pumping out the stores. Most are owned by family's that have been in business there for many many years.

This area has been a port since the 1700's. Remember Alex Haley and Kunta Kinte? There is a monument at dock street where he (Kunta Kinte) landed.

So, it all depends on the details; I would expect some flooding, but anything less than, say, 2-3 feet, will be taken in stride. It would have to come up a great deal to damage too many business. However, the businesses mentioned in the article, Armadillo's and Storm Bros. Ice Cream Factory are right at the Dock and are in the line of fire so to speak. BTW, Storm Brothers is an old fashioned ice cream parlor and a short walk from the Navel Academy. A national resource. Been there many times. Try their Pistachio ice cream. (no association, just a frequent customer!)

Isabel did produce a fairly high surge, and did cause some damage, but downtown recovered very quickly.

I read that there was a quake, about the same size as this one, in Colorado on the same day. I've hardly heard a peep about that one. I guess it shakes up the East Coast because most of us don't think of earthquakes as risks out here.

Even a "small" one can do serious damage. (6 nuke plants shaked by this one, 2 of which are in my neck of the woods.) And, if we can get a "small" one, doesn't that mean we could get a big one?

Probably a bigger one than you would want.

Sue

My thoughts exactly Sue!

Interesting article in today's WSJ about lessons being learned from this week's Virginia earthquake that are of particular concern in safeguarding east coast nuclear reactors.

Especially noteworthy, to me, is the observation that east coast quakes' ground motion is "high frequency" while west coast quakes are a lower frequency and that the distinction has ramifications.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...oWhatsNewsForth

Earthquake Triggers Reactor-Design Review

Experts believe sensitive electrical equipment at North Anna responded to high-frequency ground motion—which is a hallmark of Eastern quakes, but not of Western ones—as if it were an electrical disturbance. Nine relays designed to protect expensive transformers from damage misread that cue, temporarily cutting off the plant from the electric grid, according to Dominion's Mr. Heacock.

Every earthquake produces a broad range of ground motion frequencies, expressed in "hertz" or cycles per second. But Western quakes are more noted for the lower frequencies that are especially damaging to large, rigid structures, such as buildings and bridges. Higher frequencies are more debilitating to finely tuned equipment such as electrical or electronic devices.

USGS is still studying the August 23 east coast quake. They've concluded that this was the most widely-felt earthquake in U.S. history.

How exactly they define "widely-felt" I don't know. Surely the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes would have been felt more widely, if there were more people around back then to feel them. That earthquake epicenter in 1811-12 was the frontier of the U.S. at that time.


http://www.dmme.virginia.gov/DMR3/va_5.8_earthquake.shtml

August 23, 2011 1:51pm; 5.8 Magnitude Earthquake
Louisa County, Virginia

Virginia and much of the East Coast experienced a widely-felt earthquake at 1:51 p.m. eastern daylight time on Tuesday, August 23, 2011. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter of the quake was located near Cuckoo, in Louisa County. With a magnitude of 5.8, this is the largest Virginia earthquake recorded by seismometers. 24 aftershocks have been reported by the USGS and the area is currently being monitored by geophysicists from several leading science institutions. Click here for more detailed information on the 5.8 magnitude earthquake.

[b]The U.S. Geological Survey is now reporting that this is the most widely-felt earthquake in U.S. history.[/b]