Earthquakes aren’t supposed to hit Washington, D.C. — until they do.
Today marks the five year anniversary of the 5.8-magnitude quake that rattled the region and caused damage to buildings, including the Washington Monument and National Cathedral. Fortunately, no deaths or serious injuries were reported.
At 1:51 p.m. on Aug.23, 2011, seismic waves shot out in all directions from a depth of four miles below the Earth’s surface about 35 miles northwest of Richmond, near Mineral, Va. The rumbling lasted less than a minute, but that’s all it took to freak out a citizenry unaccustomed to tremors.
