A small earthquake struck about 45 miles northwest of Washington on Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The 3.0-magnitude quake occurred about 2:12 p.m., two miles southeast of Bolivar, W.V., the USGS said. The location is 14 miles northwest of Leesburg, Va.
The agency said the quake occurred at a depth of five kilometers, or 3.1 miles.
A quake of magnitude 3.0 is categorized as ‘weak’ and is associated with no damage, the agency said.
Still, more than 100 people in 17 zip codes reported feeling tremors.
Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center, said quakes of Sunday’s variety can happen “just about anywhere” in the United States at any time.
“Historically, these are generally isolated,” he said, adding that there was no way to be certain of whether subsequent quakes or aftershocks would be felt. He said the available data did not allow researchers to immediately trace the quake to a natural feature in the area, or to human activity such as mining or fracking.
Blakeman said quakes of this magnitude are typically felt as a quick jolt or bump and last a few seconds at most.
“It’s big enough that quite a few people probably felt it, but it’s not anywhere near big enough to cause any damage,” he said. “A lot of times people think a garbage truck backed up into their house.”
He noted that most of the “Did You Feel It?” responses on the USGS website were from within just a little over 15 miles from the quake.