Minor earthquake in Rockville shakes throughout Maryland early Tuesday

Dan Belson, Howard County Times, Columbia, Md.
·1 min read

Jan. 2—By Dan Belson — dbelson@baltsun.com

PUBLISHED:January 2, 2024 at 7:36 a.m.| UPDATED:January 2, 2024 at 7:56 a.m.

A 2.3-magnitude earthquake hit Rockville after midnight Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The agency received over 1,000 online reports of people feeling the earthquake at about 12:51 a.m., mostly in Montgomery County, though clusters of reports extend into Columbia and Ellicott City, and a handful relayed that they felt it in Carroll County and Baltimore.

The federal agency and the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Squad said they have not received any reports of damage or injury stemming from the earthquake, which hit just west of Interstate 270 in Rockville.

Earthquakes around that magnitude are regarded as weak, sometimes causing shaking but rarely causing damage. For comparison, the August 23, 2011, earthquake in Virginia that shook a swath of the East Coast, damaging some buildings, was recorded at a magnitude of 5.8.

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