5 Earthquakes Hit VA Since Mid-June; Is The Big One Coming?

VIRGINIA — In less than 30 days, five earthquakes have rattled various parts of Virginia, alarming residents and leaving some experts wondering what might happen next.

Just last weekend, a 2.6-magnitude earthquake was detected in Carroll County near the Virginia-North Carolina border, according to the United States Geological Survey. Two days earlier, a 2.7-magnitude quake near Hillsville also shook the county.

Since June 16, the USGS recorded three other small quakes in two additional counties — a magnitude 2.3 in Craig County, and a magnitude 2.6 and 2.3 in Giles County.

At such a steady clip, Virginians and experts alike wonder, will the next quake be soon? And will it be bigger?

Given the spike in activity, a larger quake could be possible, Martin Chapman, a professor of geophysics at Virginia Tech, told WTOP. So far, the quakes to hit Virginia in recent weeks have been small. A magnitude 5.3 is considered a moderate earthquake, and a 6.3 is a strong earthquake, according to the USGS.

"It's a little bit of a burst of activity here," Chapman told WTOP. "When you see a series of these things in a smaller area, you have to take into account the fact that they may be foreshocks of a bigger earthquake."

According to the USGS, a foreshock is an earthquake that precedes a larger earthquake in the same location. Generally, an earthquake cannot be identified as a foreshock until a larger earthquake in the same area occurs.

Still, in a separate interview with WSLS, Chapman said Virginians shouldn't panic.

"Virginia has its fair share of earthquakes," Chapman said.

And he's right. Virginia has had more than 160 earthquakes since 1977, according to data compiled by Virginia Tech. Of those, 16 percent were felt. That equates to an average of one quake per month with two felt each year.

For several decades, seismic activity has been strongest in and around Giles County and in central Virginia, according to Virginia Tech.

The largest earthquake to strike Virginia in recent years was on Aug. 23, 2011, when a 5.8-magnitude quake hit Mineral. Millions of people throughout the eastern United States felt the quake's tremors, yet no lives were lost. Still, the earthquake caused an estimated $200 to $300 million in damage.

Before the Mineral earthquake, the largest to occur in Virginia was the 1897 5.8-magnitude Giles County earthquake, according to the USGS. This earthquake, the third largest recorded in the eastern United States in the last 200 years, was felt in twelve states.