Insured losses from last week’s earthquake in the US state of Virginia should be less than $US100 million ($96 million), catastrophe modeller Eqecat says.

The epicentre of the 5.8-magnitude quake, which hit last Tuesday, was around the small towns of Mineral and Louisa, about 130km from Washington DC, where some federal buildings and landmarks, including the Washington Monument and Washington National Cathedral, were damaged.

Typical of earthquakes in the central and eastern US, the quake had a very broad ground motion pattern with tremors felt as far away as Toronto and Atlanta, about 650km away.

Eqecat says that had the earthquake been magnitude seven, the loss estimate would have been closer to $US2 billion ($1.9 billion).

Earthquakes in this region are rare but not unprecedented, with a 5.9-magnitude tremor the highest ever recorded in Virginia.