How common are earthquakes on the East Coast?

A small earthquake that spooked residents near Richmond, Virginia, this week is a reminder that the East Coast is not spared from the dangers of earthquakes.

According to the US Geological Survey, the magnitude 2.8 quake struck just before 5:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday about 6 miles northwest of Glen Allen, Virginia, and about 13 miles northwest of the state capital. According to local news outlet WTVR, residents of Richmond and Henrico County felt the tremors. No damage or injuries were reported.

In 2011, an earthquake near Mineral, Virginia, about 50 miles from Richmond, became the most felt earthquake in U.S. history, according to the USGS. The Aug. 23 quake caused more than $200 million in damage, including to the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral in the nation’s capital.

At magnitude 5.8, it was not among the strongest earthquakes in the country, but due to the East Coast’s unique geographic location, it was felt much farther and wider than the more common West Coast quakes.

Are earthquakes rare on the East Coast?

Earthquakes are much rarer in the eastern part of the country than in the west, but have been documented in every state east of the Mississippi, according to the United States. Nearly all eastern states experienced earthquakes strong enough to cause damage at once or otherwise.

Seismologists record about 900,000 earthquakes worldwide annually, but the vast majority occur at plate boundaries that do not exist in the eastern and Midwestern United States, according to the Department of Geology and Mining Engineering and Sciences at Michigan Technological University.

Every now and then, the East Coast is surprised by small to moderate earthquakes in states such as New York and New Jersey.

Strong quakes have occurred in the East before, and documentation of even quakes from hundreds of years ago allows us to estimate their magnitude. In November 1775, a magnitude 6.0 quake 50 miles outside of Boston caused severe damage to the city. A magnitude 6.8 to 7.2 earthquake in 1886 in Charleston, South Carolina damaged or destroyed much of the city.

The 2011 Virginia earthquake triggered landslides 150 miles away and sent damaging tremors four times further and over an area 20 times larger than ever before, a USGS report said the following year.

Why earthquakes are felt differently in the East

According to the USGS, while earthquakes in the east are typically not as strong as quakes in states like California, they can be more worrisome because they can affect a larger area than earthquakes of the same magnitude in the west.

This is because the rocks in the east of the country are much older, sometimes millions of years old. Older rocks were exposed to more extreme temperatures and pressures, and faults had more time to heal, making them harder and denser so that seismic waves could propagate across them more efficiently. To the west, the faults are newer and absorb more of the seismic wave energy, which is absorbed and does not travel as far.

The 2011 Virginia earthquake was felt by millions of people. According to the USGS, there were about 4,000 aftershocks from this quake that continued a decade later.

Earthquakes on the East Coast also cause “higher-frequency shaking (rapid back-and-forth motion) compared to similar events in the West,” the USGS said.

“The eastern United States is not often struck by damaging earthquakes, but the potential consequences of failing to understand and plan for such events, with their widespread shaking, could be severe,” USGS Director David Applegate said in 2021. “This next major earthquake in the eastern United States.” The fault may not occur for hundreds of years, but there is a small chance of it occurring at any time.”

How common are earthquakes on the East Coast?

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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