The 2011 Virginia Earthquake

On August 23, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck the Piedmont region of the U.S. East Coast near Mineral, Virginia. This was an intraplate earthquake – most earthquakes are interplate, meaning that they occur on fault lines that bound tectonic plates. Intraplate earthquakes tend to be much less frequent and much smaller in magnitude than interplate earthquakes. In fact, the most recent earthquake of larger magnitude to strike anywhere in the U.S. east of the Rockies occurred 114 years ago (one of equal magnitude occurred 67 years ago in upstate New York).