Small Earthquake Recorded In Northeast Maryland: Officials

CECIL COUNTY, MD — A preliminary 2.1-magnitude earthquake was recorded overnight in Cecil County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS said the earthquake had a depth of 6.2 km and was recorded around 12:41 a.m. Wednesday in the Rising Sun area in northeastern Maryland.

The quake lasted around 71 seconds.

Earthquakes of this size are generally considered minor and are often felt near the epicenter but rarely cause damage, according to Earthquake.usgs.gov.

It's unclear if anyone suffered injuries in the quake. No additional information was available.

Did you feel it? Report it to the USGS for tracking purposes.

Maryland is not located along a tectonic plate boundary. Instead, the state sits well within the North American Plate, far from the active boundaries responsible for many of the world's larger earthquakes.

The closest plate boundary is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a massive underwater mountain range running through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, roughly halfway between North America and Europe.

Earthquakes can still occur in Maryland because the region contains ancient faults and zones of weakness in the Earth's crust. Many formed hundreds of millions of years ago as continents collided and later separated. Stress can build along these old faults and occasionally cause them to slip, producing earthquakes.

The Maryland Geological Survey says the state experiences a moderate amount of low-level earthquake activity, although no faults in Maryland are known or suspected to be active.