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It didn't feel like an earthquake


MickinMD

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It's 11:28 EST and a few minutes ago I felt the house shake as if the something big collapsed in the house, something ran into the house, or there was something very major happening outside.

I checked the basement, 2nd floor, new roof over the outside basement steps, all the rooms, appliances, my car outside, walked around the outside of the house etc. etc.  and can find nothing out of place.

I see nothing on the news.

I have limited experiences with earthquakes but they made the house shake sideways - out and back. This felt like a quick series of in-place vibrations and a slamming noise.

Maybe someone had a truck that fell off a lift across the street from me (the family works on vehicles, usually around the back-side of their property. This was a major slamming-type noise.

P.S. SEE CONFIRMATION OF A SEISMIC EVENT AND A COAL EXPLOSION BELOW

 

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9 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

It's 11:28 EST and a few minutes ago I felt the house shake as if the something big collapsed in the house, something ran into the house, or there was something very major happening outside.

I checked the basement, 2nd floor, new roof over the outside basement steps, all the rooms, appliances, my car outside, walked around the outside of the house etc. etc.  and can find nothing out of place.

I see nothing on the news.

I have limited experiences with earthquakes but they made the house shake sideways - out and back. This felt like a quick series of in-place vibrations and a slamming noise.

Maybe someone had a truck that fell off a lift across the street from me (the family works on vehicles, usually around the back-side of their property. This was a major slamming-type noise.

 

Do you have anything that hangs?  A chandelier or hanging plants?  Look at those first, if they are swinging it’s more likely an earthquake.  If a truck drives by or something falls, explodes & such hanging items won’t swing.  

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HERE IT IS!  The location is 15 miles or so from my house!  I started typing my post here at 11:28 am after checking out my house and said "a few minutes ago."  11:22 am fits.

They haven't mentioned it on the local TV noon news, yet!

Unconfirmed earthquake or seismic-like event: Baltimore County, Maryland, 31 mi northeast of Washington, Washington DC, USA, Dec 30, 2021 11:22 am (GMT -5) - 42 minutes ago

Date & time: Dec 30, 2021 16:22:30 UTC - 42 minutes ago
Local time at epicenter: Thursday, Dec 30, 2021 11:22 am (GMT -5)
Magnitude: 3.2?
Depth: 10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 39.25212°N / 76.63387°W US.png (Baltimore, Maryland, United States)
Antipode: 39.252°S / 103.366°E

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Just now, MickinMD said:

HERE IT IS!  The location is 15 miles or so from my house!

Unconfirmed earthquake or seismic-like event: Baltimore County, Maryland, 31 mi northeast of Washington, Washington DC, USA, Dec 30, 2021 11:22 am (GMT -5) - 42 minutes ago

Date & time: Dec 30, 2021 16:22:30 UTC - 42 minutes ago
Local time at epicenter: Thursday, Dec 30, 2021 11:22 am (GMT -5)
Magnitude: 3.2?
Depth: 10.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 39.25212°N / 76.63387°W US.png (Baltimore, Maryland, United States)
Antipode: 39.252°S / 103.366°E

Rats! I had my wife convinced that was my sexual prowess making the earth move!  :angry:

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Now the TV news is showing footage of smoke rising from a coal explosion near the docks in Baltimore's Curtis Bay. a mile or so from my house.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) A five-story coal silo in Curtis Bay reportedly suffered an explosion late Thursday morning, rattling nearby homes and businesses...The Baltimore City firefighters union said the apparent explosion occurred before noon.

That would fit what I felt better than an earthquake.

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38 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

It's 11:28 EST and a few minutes ago I felt the house shake

I'd say no to the earthquake.  https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?currentFeatureId=se60377991&extent=0.70311,-138.25195&extent=53.06763,-25.75195

Some home /  business could have had an gas leak then an explosion.  I've felt that once many years ago.

We get to feel our home shake 2 or 3 times a week, when a quarry (about 1 mile away) blasts to mine some more rock. 

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14 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Now the TV news is showing footage of smoke rising from a coal explosion near the docks in Baltimore's Curtis Bay. a mile or so from my house.

There you go... that would do it.

I sure hope not too many people died or were injured. :(

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36 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

There you go... that would do it.

I sure hope not too many people died or were injured. :(

The initial reports say no injuries, that the fire is under control and no danger to the community.

It was coal dust that exploded and initial reports are saying "on a belt in a tunnel."  Coal is offloaded from barges onto a belt that runs on top of a pier to wherever it's going to be stored on shore.  Apparently, they weren't spraying the belt.

When I was on my County's Landfill Laws Commission, we were responsible for setting standards for coal storage at the coal-fired Brandon Shores Power Plant, which was watered regularly.  Also we flew to Kentucky to watch how coal from railroad cars was dumped onto barges - the whole car was lifted up and turned upside down - that went down the Ohio to the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean then up the Chesapeake Bay.  The coal was then fed along a belt into the storage sites on the Power Plant's property.  The coal on the belt had regular water sprays, too.

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30 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

how coal from railroad cars was dumped  - the whole car was lifted up and turned upside down -

I worked at a coal power plant for 1 month for training.  The trains would pull thru the car dumper.   They would stop and the railcar was clamped down to the track, then the entire thing, track and the one rail car would rotate upside-down.

You did NOT want to be in the car dump building, that had several lower levels for the conveyor belts, etc...  Coal dust would be everywhere.  Yeah.. I leaned that the hard way.

My next 1 month training was at with the mechanical engineering dept. which was a support group for all the coal stations.  One of my tasks was to design a coal dust vacuum system, that could could be used on all of the lower levels of the car dumper, to clean up the coal dust.   One day... I was in the lowest level measuring and deciding on pipe routes, and then I heard a train moving into the car dumper.  OMG I started climbing up the stairs as fast as I could.  Too late...  they dump a car, and then another.   I could just barley see my hand in front of my face.  I used my shirt as a air filter...  I coughed up coal dust for at least a week.   Yeah... I never for get that day.  

It's amazing how much coal dust is created in the lower levels of the building.. and just one spark... BOOOOM  

Kind like this... but if recall, we could only dump one rail car at a time.

 

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18 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

I worked at a coal power plant for 1 month for training.  The trains would pull thru the car dumper.   They would stop and the railcar was clamped down to the track, then the entire thing, track and the one rail car would rotate upside-down.

You did NOT want to be in the car dump building, that had several lower levels for the conveyor belts, etc...  Coal dust would be everywhere.  Yeah.. I leaned that the hard way.

My next 1 month training was at with the mechanical engineering dept. which was a support group for all the coal stations.  One of my tasks was to design a coal dust vacuum system, that could could be used on all of the lower levels of the car dumper, to clean up the coal dust.   One day... I was in the lowest level measuring and deciding on pipe routes, and then I heard a train moving into the car dumper.  OMG I started climbing up the stairs as fast as I could.  Too late...  they dump a car, and then another.   I could just barley see my hand in front of my face.  I used my shirt as a air filter...  I coughed up coal dust for at least a week.   Yeah... I never for get that day.  

It's amazing how much coal dust is created in the lower levels of the building.. and just one spark... BOOOOM  

Kind like this... but if recall, we could only dump one rail car at a time.

You must be too old for the clean coal revolution.  It's a way different ball game these days.  From what I gather, the air is cleaner inside the car dump building than it is outside! 

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