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These East Coast Earthquake Memes & Tweets Will Make You Shake With Laughter

by Seth Millstein
Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images

On Thursday, there was a 4.1-magnitude earthquake in Delaware. Although natural disasters are no laughing matter, and although the shaking was felt as far away as Pennsylvania and Virginia, 4.1 on the Richter scale is pretty darn mild as far as earthquakes go. Thankfully, there have been no injuries reported so far, and the U.S. Geological Survey says that there's only "a low likelihood of casualties and damage" from the quake. So, with that in mind, let's take a moment to enjoy some of the funniest tweets and memes about the east coast earthquake, because there were plenty of them.

The USGS reported that the quake hit at a depth of about 5 miles and was centered around 6 miles northeast of Dover, Delaware. Gary Fournier of the Delaware State Police told CNN that the shaking "lasted about a second," and that he hasn't yet heard any reports of damage or injuries. Neither has the New Jersey State Police, a spokesperson told CNN, or the Delaware Emergency Management Agency. USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso told USA Today that the agency “wouldn’t expect to have damage from an earthquake of this size," while the mayor of Dover joked that the city's Christmas tree lighting ceremony "started with a bang."

In other words, this was a pretty mild earthquake, hence the influx of jokes about it on Twitter. Here are some of the best.

Tectonic Plates Or Alcohol?

In subsequent tweets, the user confirmed that they had, indeed, felt the earthquake.

Havoc Wrought

This is only one photo, so it's entirely possible that the Delaware earthquake toppled several chairs.

What Earthquake?

Many, many Twitter users in the area didn't feel the earthquake, leading some to question whether or not it really happened.

Maybe It Was A Household Appliance

Sometimes it's hard to tell!

Distracted By A Video Game

That sounds about right.

Blink And You'll Miss It

When people can nap through an earthquake, that's usually a solid sign that it wasn't a very strong earthquake.

The Mascot Did it

The fellow depicted in that tweet is the Phillie Phanatic, official mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies. (To be clear, the tweet was a joke; the Phanatic had nothing to do with Thursday's quake.)

Earthquake Or Vehicular Disturbance?

Again, it's hard to tell, especially when the quake doesn't even crack 5.0 on the Richter scale.

Getting A Li'l Political

Because if you try hard enough, you can make anything about Trump.

On The One Hand...

In California, a 4.4-magnitude earthquake doesn't justify getting out of bed, let alone being worried.

On The Other Hand...

Well, OK, this is a fair point.

Kittyquake

It takes a bit of creativity to get from earthquakes to cats in less than 140 characters, but the Morris Animal Refuge managed to pull it off.

Blaming It On Dad

You know it's a mild earthquake when the only visible sign of it is "some dust in different spots by the basement sink."

Disappointed

Some folks were downright upset that, despite being in the vicinity of the earthquake, they didn't actually feel the earthquake.

The Toddler Scale

That sounds about right.

Earthquake Twitter In California

This is only half-true, as California certainly gets its fair share of minor, barely-perceptible tremors as well.

Earthquake Twitter On The East Coast

In fact, this right here is a completely legitimate use of Twitter. It might even be the most legitimate use of Twitter.

The Real Tragedy

This is all of us in 2017, right?

In all seriousness, let's be thankful that this earthquake brought us not death and destruction, but light-hearted ribbing and sarcastic tweets. The world isn't always terrible!