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    FancyEnglish        East Coast Quake           百科知识

       August 25, 2011

　

(CNN Student News) -- August 25, 2011 East Coast Quake East Coast residents are preparing for that extreme event. But they just lived through another one. Scientists know about the seismic zone in Virginia, where Tuesday`s earthquake was centered, but this tremor was so rare that many people wondered if the rumbling was caused by a helicopter or an explosion. Brian Todd examines some of the ripple effects of this unusual quake. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There may be an aftershock, but you`re allowed to go back in the building at this time. BRIAN TODD, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): To millions of people on the East Coast, this was the big one. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN REPORTER: Can you believe that you just witnessed an earthquake in Washington, D.C.? TODD (voice-over): It`s the strongest quake to hit the Virginia area since 1897, a 5.8, rattling nerves and shaking buildings in the nation`s capital. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really and truly thought it was some kind of bomb, because I never felt nothing like that before in Washington. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on the bus, and the bus did a shimmy. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I didn`t know what was happening. I thought the building was about to collapse. TODD (voice-over): The quake was centered near Mineral, Virginia, about 40 miles from Richmond and 83 miles from D.C. The quake could be felt all the way in Martha`s Vineyard, where the president is on vacation. Shaking was felt in more than a dozen states in all, even into Canada. NBC`s cameras, focused on the White House, caught the shaking as it happened. Some of the masonry of the National Cathedral fell off, and the National Park Service says engineers found a crack near the top of the Washington Monument. It will be closed indefinitely to keep visitors safe. Many government buildings, including the Pentagon, were evacuated, but no major damage was reported. Further north, in New York City, people ran from skyscrapers, down flights of stairs as they swayed. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The building shook back and forth. It actually rocked. TODD (voice-over): Near the epicenter of the quake, the North Anna Nuclear Power Station, the earthquake triggering an automatic shutdown there. Diesel generators kicked in to keep the reactor cores cool. I spoke to a plant executive, who wanted to make sure we knew everything was under control. TODD: What do you want to say to the public, as far as right now? DAN STODDARD, SENIOR V.P., DOMINION NUCLEAR SUPERVISION: Well, the power plant is safe. The operators responded well. Both units are shut down, maintained in a safe shutdown condition. There was no release of radioactivity. TODD (voice-over): Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, power from the main grid was restored to the plant. That power fuels the cooling systems for the reactor and the spent fuel pools. But both reactors remain shutdown. Brian Todd, CNN, Mineral, Virginia. (END VIDEO CLIP)