An earthquake hit the eastern coast of the United States at 1:51 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. The tremor lasted about 45 seconds and measured in at a 5.9 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey. The center of the earthquake occurred near Richmond, Virginia and sent tremors that hit from North Carolina to as far north as Ottawa, Canada.

No injuries have been reported as of yet. The earthquake is said to be one of the largest ever reported in the D.C. area. The state of Virginia is not located on an active earthquake fault.

“Central Virginia does get its share of minor earthquakes, but an earthquake of this size on the East Coast is certainly very unusual,” says Karen Fischer, a seismologist from Brown University. "We are just seeing pressure build up and release on those scars. There is a lot of debate on exactly what is going on down there and exactly how quakes this big happen in this kind of crustal zone."

David Oppenheimer, a seismologist for the USGS, agreed that Tuesday’s earthquake was an unexpected one. “In fact,” he said, “we don’t even know about the faults in that part of the world.”