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“I was in the basement and thought someone above me was dragging a huge piece of furniture across a wooden floor,” an OMPP auditor told Olney. “It lasted about three seconds. My son was also awake and felt it too.”
A small earthquake shook parts of central Maryland overnight Wednesday morning.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 2.1 quake was centered in Clarksville, Maryland at 2:11 a.m. with a depth of about 1.8 miles.
By dawn, the science agency had received more than 250 responses via its Did You Feel It site from residents of several counties in Maryland, including Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s and Carroll.
Most reported weak to mild shaking, on a scale from not felt to extreme.
“I was in the basement and thought someone above me was dragging a huge piece of furniture across a wooden floor,” an OMPP auditor told Olney.
“There was a loud roar and the house shook for about three or four seconds,” said Karen Burrows, who lives in Highland near the epicenter.
The tremors were felt as far west as Germantown in Montgomery County, up to 20 miles west of the Clarksville epicenter, and in Eldersburg in Carroll County, about 15 miles north .
“It’s a shallow earthquake that’s relatively common for events in the eastern United States,” USGS geophysicist Robert Sanders said. “We wouldn’t expect big aftershocks from such a small event, and anything that could happen would be isolated in a much smaller radius.”
While often considered a West Coast phenomenon, the East Coast is no stranger to occasional earthquakes, including Maryland.
Earthquakes east of the Rockies are generally weaker but felt in a wider area than those to the west. According to the Maryland Geological Survey, while the state “appears to be part of a seismically calm zone,” at least 47 measurable tremors have been observed within its borders since late 1993.
The state’s most notable seismic events tend to be centered elsewhere: The Virginia earthquake in 2011 was felt widely across the region at a magnitude of 5.8, damaging two apartment buildings in Temple Hills .
The largest confirmed Maryland earthquake ever recorded within state limits was a magnitude 3.1 event in 1978 near Washington County, but a 1939 earthquake in Baltimore County may have been more strong.
Howard County suffered a magnitude 2.5 earthquake on March 9, 1993, originating in Columbia.
There were no initial reports of injury or damage from Wednesday’s earthquake. MGS says earthquakes in the DC area rarely result in significant damage or injury.
If you felt the earthquake, let us know about your experience by calling the OMCP hotline at 844-282-1035.
Jose Umana, OMCT, contributed to this report.
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