Rare Earthquake Hits Virginia, Rattles U.S. East Coast

The 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia today was a rare but important for the region, according to an expert on earthquakes.

"He was very thorough," said seismologist Zhou Hua-wei of Texas Tech University.The earthquake in Virginia around 1:51 p.m. ET nearby Mineral, Virginia, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Richmond (map).

The earthquake shook buildings and triggered evacuations as far away as Washington, DC and New York. The earthquake had a magnitude of 2.8 replication, followed 45 minutes later.

(See: "The vibrations of the earthquake in Japan in near space.")Earthquakes often strike the U.S. East Coast and are usually less severe when they do.

Before that earthquake, for example, to include the largest earthquake in central Virginia was an earthquake of magnitude 4.8 in 1875, according to the Survey U. S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Eastern earthquakes smaller but more powerful

Earthquakes are rare in the United States because the region also has a plate boundary, a region where tectonic plates meet and grind. The boundary nearest few hundred miles in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

However, in California, a major fault, the line of the San Andreas Fault, which runs vertically through the most of the state, said Zhou.

(See "Zone of Mexico Earthquake in connection with the failure of California.")Plate boundaries are particularly prone to earthquakes because the movement of tectonic plates creates tensions that can lead to strong earthquakes when tension is released.

Zhou said he suspected that the earthquake in Virginia was due to the release of stress much less frequent a small reverse fault in the region.

However, earthquakes in Central and Eastern Europe of the United States usually sit in an area much wider than in the West Coast.

"An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 eastern U.S. generally can be felt as far away as 500 km [300 miles] from where he went, and sometimes causes damage as far as 40 km [25 miles]," USGS.

Far from plate boundaries, the crust largest and densest of the continent is much more like a huge block of crustal rocks full of guilt on the west coast, moving seismic waves.

"Most bedrock in the central Virginia met the continents collided to form a supercontinent between 500 and 300 million years, rising from Appalachia," the USGS said.