By Mary O’KEEFE

The east coast has had a little west coast shaking due to an unusually strong earthquake for that area.

A quake registering as a 5.8 magnitude, according to U.S. Geologic Society, struck on Tuesday at 5:51 p.m., followed by an aftershock registering at 2.8, at 6:46 p.m. More aftershocks continued with two on Wednesday, one 4.2 at 4:37 a.m. and another at 4:45 a.m. registering at 3.4.

The quake reportedly shut down tourists’ visits to the Washington Monument and Smithsonian Institute as precautions to inspect the damage.

Although not a normal occurrence, earthquakes have happened in the area and there are certain building codes that are followed accordingly. USGS Research Civil Engineer Emily So said she doubts if the quakes did any damage to the D.C. structures, but precautions needed to be taken.

“You start inspecting these older buildings [after a earthquake],” she said.

USGS scientists are investigating the origin of the fault line that caused the earthquake. It is not like in California where fault lines are easily seen.

It could be a result of stored energy from the formation of the Appalachians Mountains, So said.

“The USGS has sent up instrumentation to take measurements,” she added.

Hopefully the information they gather will give them more information concerning the fault line.

The earthquake’s origin was about 40 miles northwest of Richmond, Va. The area hadn’t seen earthquake activity for about 100 years.

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck near Trinidad, Colo. on Monday evening. It was reportedly the largest quake since 1967. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Peru on Wednesday morning.

There were no injuries reported with the Virginia, Colorado or Peru earthquakes.
USGS scientists are investigating the recent quakes.

  Mary Okeefe