2.6 Earthquake Off MD/VA Coast Confirmed By USGS

VIRGINIA — A few residents along the Virginia-Maryland coast felt a small earthquake Wednesday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The 2.6 magnitude earthquake was recorded about 19 miles east of Chincoteague Island about 8:30 p.m. at a depth of 11.2 kilometers, the USGS said.

An earthquake of this magnitude is typically not felt, but it can be recorded by a seismograph.

As of Thursday afternoon, there were no reports of any injuries or damage.

According to the agency’s Did You Feel It site — which gathers user-submitted reports of earthquake intensity — about a dozen people in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware felt the earthquake.

This is the second earthquake in the Mid-Atlantic since Oct. 11, 2022, when a 2.0 magnitude earthquake near Sykesville in Carroll County shook parts of Maryland, mostly in Anne Arundel, Carroll and Howard counties. The shaking was felt beyond Maryland into southern Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia.

That quake was at a depth of around 3.1 miles.

Earthquakes happen when there is movement below the Earth's surface.

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake rattled Maryland, D.C. and Virginia on Aug. 23, 2011, sending people fleeing from their office buildings across the region wondering if a terrorist attack or something else had happened.

The temblor was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Maryland and the strongest quake recorded east of the Rocky Mountains since 1944. The earthquake struck a few minutes before 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 23, with an epicenter in central Virginia.

Did you feel it? Tell us in the comments!