Holly Ferrie, a Geology student at the University of Essex, explains how the waves in Virginia probably moved:

"The fault [the quake] happened along led up to the location of Mineral, Virginia, which was [where] the first and strongest... seismic waves were felt.

"Although [seismic] waves can travel through the earth internally, they most commonly fan out to nearby locations, and energy decreases the further away it gets, unless a fault connects certain locations."

While Virginia is not near a plate boundary like California, there is still a fault area (bear in mind ) through the state: the . Generally, although the zone is active, its quakes are largely unnoticeable and deep underground, so an earthquake of 5.8 is --in fact, it's the biggest quake to hit the area since 1897.