Collected by: Virginia Tech: Crisis, Tragedy, and Recovery Network

Archived since: Sep, 2011

Description:

The 2011 Virginia earthquake occurred on August 23, 2011, at 1:51 pm EDT (17:51 UTC) in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Virginia. The epicenter, in Louisa County, was 38 miles (61 km) northwest of Richmond and 5 miles (8.0 km) south-southwest of the town of Mineral. The earthquake, along with a magnitude-5.8 1944 quake on the New York-Ontario border, is the largest to have occurred in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains since an 1897 quake centered in Giles County in western Virginia[5][6] whose magnitude has been estimated as 5.8 or 5.9. The damage was estimated by one risk-modeling firm at $200 million to $300 million, of which about $100 million was insured

Subject:   Spontaneous Events,  earthquake,  United States,  Virginia