Earthquake hits Roanoke Valley

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6:41 p.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed a 3.0 magnitude earthquake happened in the Roanoke Valley early Saturday morning after 4 a.m.

Everything looks pretty normal on Cordell Drive in Roanoke County. The flowers were blooming and a gentle breeze blew through the air.

But it was different for people asleep in their beds in the wee hours Saturday morning.

"The whole house went dadada- is how the whole house felt,” said Beth Sampson, as she shook her hands from side to side.

If her words can’t describe the activity, the seismograms will show it. Dr. Martin Chapman works in the seismological observatory at Virginia Tech. Roanoke’s earthquake was low on the Richter Scale, but he puts it in perspective.

"A magnitude three earthquake like we had today would be about a thousand times bigger than a magnitude zero earthquake,” Chapman said.

It was an earthquake Chapman called pretty shallow- probably between 5 to 10 kilometers deep, he explained. He went on to say if it happened any deeper, probably nobody would have felt it.

“We've located over 300 earthquakes in Virginia with the seismic network at Virginia Tech and 95% of those were never felt by anybody,” he said.

But those living in Roanoke County say, "It was weird. It was like maybe we were in California,” said Robin Salzbach.

"In places like California that are on a major plate boundaries, the strain rate is a lot higher and earthquakes have a string effect,” Chapman said, which makes them more frequent on the other side of the country.

Although Chapman called this earthquake ordinary for Virginia, he said, "We can have big ones, but they just don't occur very often."

And it will be hard to figure out where the big ones will happen.

"Virginia and a lot of other eastern seaboard states - although they have the potential for damaging earthquakes, we don't have the resources to actually do intensive studies that might just tell us where the more active faults are,” Chapman said.

Chapman said, historically the most active part of the state of Virginia has been along the New River in Giles County. In 1897, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 hit Giles County. This earthquake was the largest in intensity in Virginia.

There are other places in Virginia that get a fair share of earthquake activity.

"About once every two months, we'll detect an earthquake in western Virginia or central Virginia,” Chapman said.

But people here can’t forget what they felt.

“You just felt the house shaking,” said Monica Moore.

It’s something they may feel again.

"Where we've seen earthquakes in the past, we can expect to see earthquakes in the future,” Chapman said.

It’s just a matter of when.

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3:49 p.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey's newsest update upgraded the intensity of the earthquake to a magnitude 3.0.

It also adjusted the coordinates of the earthquake to 37.248°N, 80.002°W, with distances of:

2 km (1 miles) NNE (12°) from Cave Spring
5 km (3 miles) SW (232°) from Roanoke
6 km (4 miles) SE (132°) from Salem

The USGS also believes the earthquake happened at a depth of about eight miles underground.

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2:30 p.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey sent out an update to their preliminary report on the Roanoke County earthquake from Saturday morning.

The new preliminary report changed the coordinates of the earthquake to 37.245N, 80.001W.

The USGS places the epicenter of the earthquake at:

1 km (1 miles) NNE (19 degrees) of Cave Spring
5 km (3 miles) SW (229 degrees) of Roanoke City
7 km (4 miles) SE (134 degrees) of Salem

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8:33 a.m.

Roanoke County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief, Darryl Sexton, tells WSLS that there was an earthquake in Roanoke County this morning after 4 a.m.

Sexton said ithe earthquake measured 2.6 on the Richter Scale, and was centered around Cordell Drive off Electric Road. The U.S. Geological Survey put the epicenter's coordinates at 37.245N, 80.022W.

Click here for a map

So far, there have been no reports of damage or injuries.

10 On Your Side has a crew in the area. We'll bring you what people remember feeling and hearing, tonight on WSLS at 11 p.m.