2.1-magnitude earthquake recorded in Maryland county overnight

Christopher Scarglato, The Baltimore Sun on Sep 9, 2026

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BALTIMORE — A 2.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Cecil County early Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake was recorded around 12:41 a.m. near Rising Sun. It had a 6.2-kilometer depth, officials with the USGS said.

Rising Sun Town Administrator Calvin A. Bonenberger Jr. told The Baltimore Sun that officials checked surrounding infrastructure and found no damage from the earthquake.

According to USGS, earthquakes with a magnitude of about 2 or less are generally considered microearthquakes. This means they are rarely felt and are generally recorded only locally.

Maryland doesn’t sit on any tectonic plate boundaries, unlike states like California and Alaska, making it much less susceptible to strong quakes.

Maryland’s closest active plate boundary is in the Atlantic Ocean, where the North American and Eurasian plates meet.

Due to the two plates pulling away from each other, it does cause a “little bit of stress” to accumulate on old faults in the state, Rebecca Kavage Adams, a geologist for the Maryland Geological Survey, told The Sun.

“Every now and then,” Kavage Adams said about Wednesday’s quake, “that stress gets released.”

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