When you bring all these factors together, it makes a clearer picture as to why the Virginia quake carried so magnificently: cool, barely-ruptured ancient ground combined with an activity zone will let a sudden powerful surge energy equivalent to 7000 tons of TNT less than 4 miles from the surface travel at a fair pace across lots of connected faults and fault lines to reach other parts of the continent.

Of course, why such a sudden moderate-heavy quake happened at such a shallow depth is yet to be really uncovered--perhaps it's that went previously undetected--but if there's one thing that geologists, seismologists, and scientists can agree on, it's that the Earth will always continue to surprise.

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