UPDATE: Well, then: officials have updated their original assessment, and now state that the crack at the top of the Washington Monument is actually a little more than four feet long.

D.C.’s public schools, the National Cathedral and Union Station weren’t the only ones suffering at the hands of earthquake damage – or, at least, damage discovered upon closer inspection demanded by the incident – this morning. The National Park Service is saying that several cracks, including one measuring approximately four inches, have been discovered in stones at the top of the Washington Monument.

The Monument was closed yesterday, amid woefully incorrect reports that the Monument was leaning to one side. Currently, Park Service authorities have carved out a 100-foot perimeter around the base of the Monument, as structural engineers conduct a secondary inspection to make sure that there’s no potential for any pieces of the structure to break off and fall onto the obelisk’s grounds.

We can likely expect to hear more stories like this one in the coming days — experts tell the Washington Post that the full effect of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake might not be truly assessed for days.