Here on the west coast we mostly expect earthquakes to happen. As such our infrastructure has been hardened to withstand most moderate to heavy quakes. But what happens when an earthquake hits an area that is relatively unprepared for seismic activity?

At 13:51 EDT, a 5.9 Mw earthquake jolted the entire eastern seaboard. The relatively shallow shock was felt not only in the D.C. area but in New York City and as far inland as Ohio. Reports of damage to building and infrastructure are coming in. So far there are no reports of casualties, but this is a breaking story and is subject to change as new information comes in.

While earthquakes in the Virginia region are not uncommon, they tend to be smaller. To the south, the Carolinas are home to an active fault system considered to potentially be one of the more dangerous in North America. The hypocentral distance from the surface is most likely why the quake was felt so far away.

For more information see the U.S. Geological Survey event page:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/usc0005ild.php#details