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Hundreds of felt reports from Eastern US

4:57 PM – Nov 30, 2017

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4.1 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Delaware

00:11 / 00:39

00:21

00:39

4.1 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Delaware

A 4.1 magnitude earthquake was centered near Dover, Delaware Thursday afternoon. Meteorologist Danielle Banks reports.

At a Glance

• A 4.1 magnitude earthquake rattled Delaware in a rare occurrence.
• Residents in multiple cities along the East Coast reported feeling rumblings from the quake.

A rare 4.1 magnitude earthquake struck Delaware Thursday, causing rumblings that were felt in other cities along the East Coast. 

The temblor’s center was reported near Dover, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. No injuries or damages were reported. 

USGS geophysicist John Bellini told the Associated Press that any damages would be minimal. 

“It would mostly be a few items knocked from shelves, cracks in plaster,” he said. 

Residents in Pennsylvania, New York and Washington, D.C. took to social media to share that they also felt shaking from the quake. 

(PHOTOS: Bali’s Mount Agung Erupts)

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EMSC✔@LastQuake

Hundreds of felt reports from Eastern US

4:57 PM – Nov 30, 2017

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In Baltimore, Maryland, students at the University of Maryland rushed out of office towers into the street, AP reports. 

Graduate student Husam Albarmawi told AP that he and his wife ran out of their 23rd-story apartment after feeling two jolts that were roughly 20 seconds apart.

“When we felt it we looked at each other like, ‘Are we losing it?’” he said. “It was actually pretty scary and pretty surprising.”

Most North American cities east of the Rocky Mountains rarely have earthquakes, according to USGS. A majority of the region from the mountain chain to the Atlantic Ocean can go years without a temblor that is large enough to be felt. Several U.S. states have never reported a damaging earthquake.

There has been evidence that some quakes that hit parts of central and eastern North America earthquakes were triggered by human activity that changed the stress conditions in the earth’s crust enough to cause faulting, USGS reports.

Activities that have induced such quakes have included impounding water behind dams, injecting fluid into the planet’s crust, extracting fluid or gas, and removing rock during mining or quarrying operations.