There are so many songs that can be used to describe the earthquake that hit our area yesterday: "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", "Shakin'", etc. It was eventually tagged as a 5.8, with an epicenter near Mineral, VA. Damage has been minimal, but it was felt over a wide area, thus saturating the news coverage.

I personally did not feel the quake because I was driving at the time, but Raine certainly did, and we lost some glass art. Federal buildings (including the Pentagon) were evacuated, which is not always the best action to take in an earthquake (you could be hurt or killed by falling debris). Two DC icons were damaged though: National Cathedral lost some of its steeple pinnacles, and the Washington Monument has a crack in it. There are also numerous buildings in VA that have been rendered unsafe (for now), making dozens of people and businesses homeless.

The quake also generated a certain amount of snark among people, passing around photos of tipped-over chairs as quake "damage". Claims of overreaction were also coming from the west coast, as people more accustomed to earthquakes let out a collective yawn at our expense. The reality, though, is that the geology is very different here, so a 5.8 here will be felt very differently than a 5.8 there.

There is always a political angle to everything, and this is no exception. I have not found Republicans specifically blaming President Obama (yet), and reports of "Obamaquake" being used are actually left-wing joking about right-wing spin (although the phrase HAS been used in the past in another context). However, one very REAL story that should not be forgotten is that Eric Cantor (R-VA) wanted to cut Disaster Preparedness. How ironic is it that this earthquake occurred so close to his home district? May the cracked buildings and fallen bricks be a daily visual reminder to voters there...

How long, though, before the conspiracy theorists begin to come out of the woodwork? There are some early "rumblings" (sorry) that this was created by the HARRP project. For those with short memories, this was floated as a legitimate possible cause of the massive quake off the coast of Japan. There's nothing from Glenn Greenwald yet, but give it time.

With a name like "Mineral", you would automatically assume this is a mining town, and you'd be correct. There are also the beginnings of the meme that mining, fracking, and oil extraction are the cause of the quake (never mind that it occurred at a depth greater than 3 miles).

It will be fun to see how these (and possibly other) "alternative theories" pop up over the next few days. Some people just can't seem to come to terms with the reality that the earth is constantly changing, and sometimes the changes come in jumps. Not everything bad that happens is because some evil scientist on a hill wearing a white lab coat pointed his comically large death ray at a fault line and pulled the trigger. Perhaps these people read too many comic books as kids.

All I know is that we have a couple days to recover before we're slammed by a hurricance. Maybe the HARRP Project created that too. Bring on the locusts!