In 1886 a major earthquake in Charleston, South Carolina killed 60 people. Image: USGS.

NEW YORK CITY — The magnitude 5.8 quake that struck central Virginia today was unusual for the area. But parts of the Eastern Seaboard still face a high risk of earthquake damage and casualties, in some cases on par with cities on the west coast.

Though the rest of the country experiences far fewer moderate or large quakes than the Pacific Coast, which sits directly on an active tectonic plate boundary, when things like population density, building codes and preparedness are taken into account, the...