Major earthquakes are rare in North Carolina, but seismic events can happen any time of the year
US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Joe Marusak
Sat, January 28, 2023
A 1.8 magnitude earthquake registered in the North Carolina mountains near Virginia on Saturday, federal seismologists confirmed.
The quake struck at 4:09 a.m. and was centered about 6 miles miles northwest of West Jefferson and 13 miles west-southwest of Boone, the USGS reported.
The earthquake had a depth of 2.36 miles, according to the USGS.
West Jefferson is a town of about 1,200 people in Ashe County, about 120 miles northwest of Charlotte.
No injuries or damage were reported.
While there’s no single magnitude above which damage occurs, damage typically results when the earthquake magnitude reaches somewhere above 4 or 5, according to the USGS.
No one reported feeling Saturday’s quake, according to the USGS.
The USGS asks that anyone who felt the quake to report it on Earthquake.USGS.gov.
Typically, earthquakes below magnitude 2.0 can be felt if the quake is shallow enough and if people are very close to its epicenter, according to VolcanoDiscovery.com.
Recent NC quakes
On Tuesday, Jan. 10, a 1.2 magnitude earthquake registered in western Catawba County, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
The quake struck at 2:57 a.m. and was centered about 3.7 miles southeast of the community of Mountain View, the USGS reported. The earthquake had a depth of 2.17 miles, according to the USGS.
In May 2022, a 2.2 earthquake struck southeast of the town of Catawba, also in Catawba County.
About three years ago, Sparta, North Carolina, experienced a 5.1 magnitude earthquake that researchers recently discovered left a “rupture” in the ground more than 1.5 miles long, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
Major earthquakes are rare in North Carolina, but seismic events can happen any time of the year, according to the N.C. Division of Environmental Quality.
The night of the Mountain View quake, South Carolina experienced its first confirmed tremor of the year, The State reported.
The 1.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Hopkins area of Richland County at 11:03 p.m., the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said.
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