[CEUS-earthquake-hazards] ESSA Little Rock Oct 16-18 - Virginia Earthquake session

[Oliver Boyd]

The Mw5.8 central Virginia seismic zone earthquake of August, 2011

On 2011 August 23 at 17:51:04 UTC a large earthquake (Mw5.8) struck in the
Central Virginia seismic zone and was felt from Maine to Georgia along the
Eastern Seaboard and west to Chicago and western Tennessee.  Significant
damage was reported in Washington D.C. ( 135 km away) and minor damage in
Baltimore (200 km). The USGS tallied about 142,000 felt reports submitted to
the DYFI internet community intensity system, making it the most widely felt
earthquake since the web-site began, and strongly indicating that more
people felt this quake than any other in U.S. history. In the weeks
following the main shock, numerous aftershocks occurred with one as large as
M4.5 and several in the M3 to M2 range. Since 1774, the Virginia seismic
zone has produced many small earthquakes and suffered damage from several
infrequent larger earthquakes. The largest damaging earthquake (magnitude
4.8) in the seismic zone occurred in 1875. In the days following the
mainshock forty-five portable seismic stations were deployed by several
organizations making this one of the best-recorded aftershock sequences in
the eastern U.S.  We solicit scientific contributions from all aspects of
earthquake studies on the recent large earthquake in the Virginia seismic
zone including: strong ground motion, aftershock production, earthquake
re-location, attenuation, site amplification, building damage, ground
failure, and paleo-seismology.

Session conveners:
Daniel McNamara
Steve Horton
Rob Williams

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