Initial assessment of the intensity distribution of the 2011 M_w5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake

The intensity data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) Website (USGS, DYFI; http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/se/082311a/us/index…, last accessed Sept 2011) for the M_w5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake, are unprecedented in their spatial richness and geographical extent. More than 133,000 responses were received during the first week following the earthquake. Although intensity data have traditionally been regarded as imprecise and generally suspect (e.g., Hough 2000), there is a growing appreciation for the potential utility of spatially rich, systematically determined DYFI data to address key questions in earthquake ground-motions science (Atkinson and Wald, 2007; Hauksson et al., 2008).