Comments on: Animated map of VA earthquake tweets, August 23, 2011

By: Ivan Herndon

Ivan Herndon — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:46:00 +0000

That’s where I’m at. It was interesting seeing Richmond and DC light up just incrementally before C’ville and Lynchburg. And I’m betting that has to do more with population than about when the quake was felt.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:43:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure I saw my location on there. Apparently I’m the only person for miles around who tweeted about the quake.

By: mattreynolds42

mattreynolds42 — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:57:00 +0000

“Is it true, as XKCD suggested, that the tweets travelled faster than the shock wavefront?”

Yes. It has been reported that people in NYC recieved the tweets about the earthquake in DC in advance of the shaking being felt in NYC.

By: kent williams

kent williams — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:48:00 +0000

Is it true, as XKCD suggested, that the tweets travelled faster than the shock wavefront?

By: Dave Laderoute

Dave Laderoute — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Kind of neat seeing the Tweets roughly mirror the spread of the earthquake’s shockwaves (probably the P “back and forth” compressive waves as, IIRC from my university days, the S “side to side” or shear waves are slower to propagate).

By: Daen de Leon

Daen de Leon — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 03:58:00 +0000

Truly, the Twattering classes …

By: technobach

technobach — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 03:14:00 +0000

now, someone has to see if xkcd.com/723 was right

By: ridestowe

ridestowe — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 03:12:00 +0000

a single person in burlington, vt. lol

By: Jeannine @ Small & Chic Home

Jeannine @ Small & Chic Home — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:48:00 +0000

I’m the social media person at my office and have to admit that as I stood in my doorway about 10 seconds into the quake, I wished I had my ipad so I could see the Tweets. :)

I’m in Charlottesville, VA, about 35 miles from Mineral.

By: Will Campbell

Will Campbell — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:02:00 +0000

Coincidentally, this is the same tweet sequence and intensity that erupted when:
A) It was erroneously reported that Will and Jada Smith had separated.
B) Amy Winehouse died.
C) The Casey Anthony verdict was announced.
D) Muppets Bert & Ernie were rumored to be getting married.

By: AngerMonkey

AngerMonkey — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:14:00 +0000

The first person on my feed tweeted about the earthquake from the DC area and was time stamped about 45 seconds after what USGS called as the official event time. Within 30 seconds, there were two more from DC and then another from NYC. These all beat the little red box on earthquakes.usgs.gov by about 3 minutes.

What? Do other people NOT go immediately to earthquakes.usgs.gov at the first mention of “earthquake?”

By: RobDobbs

RobDobbs — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:13:00 +0000

means nothing without a timeline.

By: Jay Converse

Jay Converse — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:06:00 +0000

Fatal flaw in animation: no timeline.

By: Jason Sewell

Jason Sewell — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:18:00 +0000

Have we been able to determine the very first person to tweet about the quake? Seems like we could mine the data and discover this person fairly easily.

By: Eddie Perkins

Eddie Perkins — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:18:00 +0000

Too bad it didn’t zoom out and include West Coast tweets laughing about a 5.8 making world news.