Earth Changes
The Virginia earthquake is already being called a "once a century" earthquake for the east coast. The earthquake was felt from Georgia all the way up to Ottawa, Canada. It was felt as far west as Cleveland, Ohio. It prompted the evacuation of congressional buildings and the Pentagon. The earthquake actually cracked the Washington Monument and now it is closed indefinitely for repairs.
But that was not the only major seismic event in the U.S. that day. A magnitude-5.3 earthquake rattled the area along the Colorado/New Mexico border. That was the largest earthquake that region had seen in more than 40 years.

The Met Office says the south-east of England is likely to bear the brunt of the strongest winds.
Flood warnings were issued and some travellers faced difficult journeys as heavy rain and strong winds whipped across parts of the UK on Tuesday.
Winds of up to 50mph were predicted on the south and south-east coasts of England and up to 50mm of rain was expected to fall within 24 hours in some areas of the north-east and north Wales.
The wet and windy weather was expected to continue throughout the week as a series of low pressure systems move through.
Powerful winds reaching 130 kilometres an hour uprooted trees in the community northeast of Montreal and caused damage to about 70 homes.
Andre Cantin of Environment Canada says the tornado ranked as zero on a scale up to five and was over in about a minute.
Cantin says there have been four tornadoes in Quebec so far this year and the province averages six annually.
The mayor of Trois-Rivieres, Yves Levesque, says no one was hurt in the storm.
He says the clean-up is well underway, though some are still without power.
A woman who had stopped in her car during a storm, films the raging winds gathering pace until, about six minutes in, a full on tornado appears in front of her.
The National Weather Service said it received multiple reports of the tornado in Montgomery County.
'We have video evidence that certainly suggests it was a tornado,' Meteorologist Ray O'Keefe said.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said: 'It appears a tornado touched down in the Amsterdam area Sunday evening.
Genetic sleuthing by an international team of researchers has fingered California as the source of the pathogen, Seiridium cardinale, which is the cause of cypress canker disease and has killed as much as 95 percent of native trees in the cypress family, including junipers and some cedars.
The findings were published Thursday in the journal Phytopathology.
"The fungus was likely introduced from California either in the South of France or in Central Italy 60 to 80 years ago, and that introduction resulted in a global pandemic that has devastated the region's iconic Italian cypress trees," Matteo Garbelotto, adjunct associate professor and cooperative extension specialist in ecosystem sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a university release.
The UN says tens of thousands of people have died after what is said to be East Africa's worst drought for 60 years.
Bay becomes the sixth area to be officially declared a famine zone - mostly in parts of southern Somalia controlled by the Islamist al-Shabab.
Some 12 million people across the region need food aid, the UN says.

Rescue workers search for missing people amongst a destroyed house caused by floodwaters in Tanabe, Wakayama prefecture, in western Japan.
Another 56 people are missing, according to a tally of casualties compiled from various prefectural police.
The storm unleashed record rainfall that triggered landslides and flooding.
The Japan Meteorological Agency briefly classified the storm as a typhoon before it made landfall. But the Joint Typhoon Warning Center recorded the storm making landfall in Japan as a tropical storm.
Monday, September 05, 2011 at 17:55:13 UTC
Tuesday, September 06, 2011 at 12:55:13 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location:
2.973°N, 97.997°E
Depth:
110.1 km (68.4 miles)
Region:
NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
Distances:
99 km (62 miles) SW (227°) from Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
167 km (104 miles) NNW (328°) from Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
375 km (233 miles) SW (224°) from Pinang, Malaysia
412 km (256 miles) W (268°) from KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
Monday, September 05, 2011 at 09:51:59 UTC
Monday, September 05, 2011 at 10:51:59 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location:
15.291°S, 173.618°W
Depth:
27.2 km (16.9 miles)
Region:
TONGA
Distances:
73 km (45 miles) NNE of Hihifo, Tonga
254 km (157 miles) SW of APIA, Samoa
326 km (202 miles) WSW of PAGO PAGO, American Samoa
2653 km (1648 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand











