A small earthquake, centered in Germantown, Md. occurred at 5:04 a.m. EDT today, July 16 and its vibrations were felt from West Virginia to Bridgeport, Conn. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center located in Greenbelt, Md., lies about 25 miles east-southeast of today's small earthquake and reported no damages. In fact, there were no reports of damage throughout Maryland.
The earthquake registered 3.6 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the agency that monitors quakes around the U.S. USGS reported that the quake occurred today, Friday, July 16, 2010 at 5:04:47 a.m. EDT. The quake originated 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) deep and it was centered at 39.167°North, 77.252°West, in Germantown, Md. That latitude and longitude positions the quake's epicenter just west of Interstate 270 and south of Maryland state route 119.
The USGS noted that the epicenter was 15 km (10 miles) northwest of Rockville, Md., 30 km (15 miles) east-northeast of Leesburg, Va., 35 km (20 miles) northwest of Washington, D.C., and 70 km (45 miles) west-northwest of Annapolis, Md.