An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 struck Tuesday afternoon near Washington, D.C., the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia. The quake was four miles deep, according to the USGS. Did you feel it? Send CNN an iReport.
To get complete coverage and all the latest updates, click on CNN's main story here. View a CNN Open Story about the quake. CNN Open Story combines iReports with reports from CNNers across the globe on a map and timeline.
Update 3:36 p.m. ET: Terminal A at Washington Reagan National Airport has been evacuated because of an odor of gas, airport spokeswoman Courtney Mickalonis said. Initial sweeps of the building showed no major damage from the earthquake.
Light structural damage has been reported in Culpepper and Orange counties in Virginia, said Laura Southard of the state Emergency Operations Center. She said there have been no reports of injuries in Virginia.
Update 3:28 p.m. ET: The White House and adjacent buildings evacuated as a precaution following the earthquake have been given the all-clear, the U.S. Secret Service said. The FBI and Justice Department have also reopened evacuated buildings.
Update 3:25 p.m. ET: East Coast residents should be prepared to feel aftershocks from Tuesday's earthquake, a U.S. Geological Survey official said.
Update 3:22 p.m. ET: The North Anna nuclear power plant, located 20 miles from the epicenter, is shut down and in a safe condition, a company official and the Louisa County public information office report. There has been no release of nuclear material, Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach said.
Update 3:04 p.m. ET: All national monuments and parks in Washington are "stable but closed" following Tuesday's earthquake, a United States Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser said. A couple of minor injuries and some minor structural damage have been reported in Washington, following Tuesday's earthquake, according to Schlosser.
Part of the central tower of the National Cathedral, the highest point in Washington, was damaged, according to spokesman Richard Weinberg. "It looks like three of the pinnacles have broken off the central tower," Weinberg told CNN.
Update 3:02 p.m. ET: Amtrak is reporting service disruptions between Washington and Baltimore because of the earthquake, the company reported on Twitter.
Aftershocks are a concern, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones told CNN. "People should be expecting (them), especially over the next hour or two," she said.
The quake was felt in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where President Barack Obama is vacationing. It's unknown if the president felt the quake.
The Pentagon has been evacuated, CNN's Barbara Starr reports. "When the building began shaking rather violently, hundreds of people began streaming out," she said, because many people thought that the building was under attack. Starr was standing in the Pentagon's press office when the roof started to shake.
Cell phone service has been disrupted in New York City, CNN learned within minutes of the quake.
Updated 2:47 p.m. ET: A "considerable amount" of water from a water pipe has flooded two corridors of the Pentagon, according to an announcement in the building. People who work in those areas are being asked to stay in their offices while workers try to repair the damage.
The National Cathedral in Washington is damaged, CNN has confirmed.
And Dominion Generation, which operates the North Anna nuclear power station in central Virginia a few miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, is trying to reach operational staff at the plant, according to a company spokesman. Landlines to the plant appear to be down.
Shortly after the quake struck, traders in the New York Stock Exchange also felt the quake and shouted to each other, "Keep trading!" CNN's business correspondent Alison Kosik reported from the floor at 2:20 p.m. E.T.
Twitter traffic suggests the quake was felt all over the East Coast.
In Philadelphia, HunterPence3 tweeted, "Wow Earthquake just shook the entire locker room!"
In Cleveland, "tribeinsider" wrote "I'm no expert but i think we just had an earthquake here."
And even in Toronto, Canada, tweets said that the shaking could be felt for minutes.
Pete Krech, who works at a business in Fredericksburg, Virginia, likened the sensation to being on a jolting amusement ride. "I was receiving a supply truck," said Krech, store manager at Mattress Warehouse of Fredericksburg, south of Washington. "I felt a vibration under my feet."
Brendan Wein, a sales representative at Hoffman Nursery in Roxboro, North Carolina, said he thought there was a helicopter flying above his work building. "I was literally shaking in my chair," he said.
CNN iReporter Jeff Yapalater said he was in his backyard in New York's Long Island when the earthquake hit. "Suddenly I felt this light swaying of the Earth. I'd never felt that before, so I thought maybe I was experiencing vertigo for a moment, and it lasted maybe 30 seconds ... We're feeling this really far away!" he wrote.
People are utterly ridiculous. Please ignore all media about this because, believe it or not, the media uses scare tactics and over-sensationalized rhetoric. Our infrastructure is not inadequate and this attempt to "keep people safe" such as evacuating the Pentagon is nonsense. If people have that little faith in American engineering, then maybe we should upgrade our buildings – instead of inciting mass panic – an incentive for new jobs.
I knew the religious fruitcakes would be out claiming whatever for "God". I might just as well claim "He", "She", "They" hate the repubs; air-conditioning, or some other weird idiocy. Try actually learning about Place Tectonics and how it works and maybe begin to change building codes on the east coast since it appears the fault lines may be activating again.
felt it in Sugar Grove WV!!!!
i felt the earthquake all the way here in coalwood west virgnia it was so scary i thought i was just me then i realized something was not right for about 20 seconds. i have been through 1 earth quake it was back in 2002 in calhoun Ga it was then i knew how a earth quake felt... my tv shook today our tv so we felt it really hard here this is a little town and you just get things like this that happen but today it was a scary feeling
These media outlets are ridiculous. Always talking about the nuclear plant. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. It shut down and water is circulating through the spent fuel.
We felt it in Waterloo Ontario Canada
Felt it in my guitar shop in Mechanicsburg, Pa 17050...they guitars were swaying on the wall!
Did you have the amps turned up to 11?
I felt it here in london,ontario,canada,wow it shook,my room
I live here in WV and i my house shoke for a few seconds.
Made Nancy Pelosi's pantsuit split at the seam in her a$$. She fell down. 'Help, I've fallen and can't get up.' 'I need my giant gavel to help me.' 'I told Obama to shut his mouth or something like this would happen.'
Way to go Obama.
We felt it in Hanover, PA. Apt. shook for appox. 35 seconds.
Felt it in Bethany Beach, DE!
Felt it in Toronto, Canada for at least 80 seconds
In GA.. at Morehouse College. I felt my chair rocking back and forth... when I mentioned earthquake everyone laughed..they thought I was nuts. Then this guy in an office down the hall said he felt it too and coincidentally he was on the phone with his brother in MD when it happened...