Virginia - Earthquake History

On February 21, 1774, a strong earthquake was felt over much of Virginia and southward into North Carolina. Many houses were moved considerably off their foundations at Petersburg and Blandford (intensity MM VII). The shock was described as “severe” at Richmond and “small” at Fredericksburg. However, it “terrified the inhabitants greatly.” The total felt area covered about 150,000 square kilometers.

The three great earthquakes near New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811 - 1812 (December 11, January 23, and February 7) were felt strongly in Virginia. Reports from Norfolk and Richmond newspapers describe the effects in detail.

An earthquake, apparently centered in southwestern Virginia, on March 9, 1828, was reported felt over an area of about 565,000 square kilometers, from Pennsylvania to South Carolina and the Atlantic Coastal Plain to Ohio. Very few accounts of the shock were available from places in Virginia; it was reported that doors and windows rattled (MM V). President John Quincy Adams felt this tremor in Washington D.C., and provided a graphic account in his diary. He compared the sensation to the heaving of a ship at sea.

The August 27, 1833, earthquake covered a broad felt area from Norfolk to Lexington and from Baltimore, Maryland, to Raleigh, North Carolina - about 135,000 square kilometers. Two miners were killed in the panic the shock caused at Brown’s Coal Pits, near Dover Mills, about 30 kilometers from Richmond. At Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, and Norfold, windows rattled violently, loose objects shook, and walls of buildings were visibly agitated (MM V).

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