CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Thank you for voting on wsoctv.com. Did You Feel The Earthquake In Charlotte? Did you feel the earthquake on Tuesday afternoon? Yes. No. Not sure.
A 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit Virginia Tuesday, and tremors were felt in Charlotte and along the East Coast.
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Calls began pouring into the Channel 9 newsroom shortly before 2 p.m., right after the earthquake hit. Tremors were reported across the area, from parts of South Carolina up into the North Carolina mountains.
The shaking was reportedly brief, only lasting for a few seconds. There were no reports of injuries or major damage in the Charlotte area.
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The earthquake was centered near Louisa, Va., which is northwest of Richmond and south of Washington. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was half a mile deep.
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Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Charleston, S.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated.
A District of Columbia fire department spokesman said there were numerous injuries but no reports of serious injuries or deaths.
Obama and many of the nation's leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. The shaking was felt on the Martha's Vineyard golf course as Obama was just starting a round.
At the Pentagon in northern Virginia, a low rumbling built and built to the point that the building was shaking. People ran into the corridors of the government's biggest building and as the shaking continued there were shouts of "Evacuate! Evacuate!"
The U.S. Park Service evacuated and closed all National Mall monuments and memorials. At Reagan National Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell during a few seconds of shaking. Authorities announced it was an earthquake and all flights were put on hold.
Amtrak said its trains along the Northeast Corridor between Baltimore and Washington were operating at reduced speeds and crews were inspecting stations and railroad infrastructure before returning to normal.
In New York, the 26-story federal courthouse in lower Manhattan began swaying and hundreds of people were seen leaving the building. Court officers weren't letting people back in.
More than 12 million people live close enough to the quake's epicenter to feel shaking, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The agency said this quake was in the yellow alert category for economic damage, meaning there was potential for local damage but it would add up to far less than 1 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
East Coast earthquakes are far less common than in the West, but they tend to be felt over a broad area. That's because the crust is not as mangled and fractured, allowing seismic waves to travel without interruption.
"The waves are able to reverberate and travel pretty happily out for miles," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough.
The earthquake produced at least four aftershocks.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the aftershocks around the central Virginia epicenter ranged in magnitude from 4.2 to as little as 2.2 since the strongest earthquake to strike the East Coast since World War II.
More Information: USGS Earthquake Details
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