I suppose what is most remarkable is not the intensity of the earthquake, but its location. Virginia is a very unusual location for an epicenter of an earthquake. Colorado is much more likely, but not typical.
I put the Virginia earthquake in the same category as the catestrophic blizzard in Virginia last year. One can easily come up with naturalistic reasons for these events (global climate change (note that it is no longer global warming) or fault lines) but the frequency as well as locations of these events is not at all typical.
Unusual , kinda, but not too uncommon on the east cost.
1755, Boston/Cape Ann, Massachusetts
1811 & 1812 -- New Madrid, Missouri,
1886, Charleston, South Carolina
1895, Charleston, Missouri
1897, Giles County, Virginia
1884, New York City area
1931 -- Valentine, Texas,
1947 -- Michigan
1979 & 1980 - New York State and the adjacent areas
experienced 131 earthquakes of magnitude 1 to 5.
1980, 5 earthquakes recorded north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1980, Kentucky shaken by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake.
1982 -- New Brunswick, Canada, had a magnitude 5.7 earthquake.
1982 -- Arkansas earthquake swarm starts.
Eighty-eight earthquakes between June 24 and July 5, 1982. Four earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.0 to 4.5 during first 3 months of swarm. Total of about
40,000 earthquakes in the area (most very small or not felt) between 1982 and 1985.
1983 - Lake Charles, Louisiana, experienced a magnitude 3.8 earthquake.
1983 -- Indiana had a magnitude 5.9 earthquake.
1986 -- Painesville, Ohio, experienced a magnitude 4.9 earthquake and several aftershocks. The earthquake was felt in 11 states.
1987 -- Southeastern Illinois experienced a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. This area has had 7 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater since 1892.
Looks like they're not too uncommon over on the east cost though.
Earthquakes in the Midwestern and Eastern United States?!
Though nothing like over on the west cost
