Virginia Earthquake Felt in Boston

News outlets are reporting that a 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., also struck Washington, D.C. and was felt as far north as New York City, Providence, R.I. and Boston Tuesday afternoon.

On Twitter and Facebook, dozens of people in Boston reported feeling one or two small quakes around 2 p.m. that lasted for a few seconds. Locally in Charlestown, a handful of residents told Patch they experienced the quake, including employees at Autoport on Terminal Street.

Massachusetts State Police sent out an alert that they've received dozens of calls from residents reporting shaking, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Patch spoke with Karen Fischer, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University. She said the size of the Virginia earthquake was unusually large for the east coast, though its far-reaching aftershocks were to be expected.

“The difference is, when an earthquake of this size occurs in the eastern US, its waves are felt over a much larger area than if it happened in the western US,” she said.

Earthquakes on the west coast tend to have a number of natural buffers, she said – most of the area sits on a plate boundary, and the quakes can bring molten material closer to the surface which can act as a natural buffer to shocks.

“When an earthquake happens on the East Coast, they are able to transmit...over larger distances, even though the earthquake may be the same size,” she said.

In D.C. today, parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated, as were airport control towers at Newark Airport in New Jersey and New York's JFK Airport, according to New England Cable News.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports the earthquake was 3.7 miles deep in Mineral, Va.