An overnight earthquake rocked eastern Tennessee; however, it was too weak to create any damage or injuries. According to USGS, at4:07 am this morning, a magnitude 2.4 earthquake struck near Athens, Tennessee from a depth of 20.5 km. Athens is located roughly half-way between Atlanta, Georgia and Louisville, Kentucky, as well as half way between Nashville, Tennessee and Greenville, South Carolina. USGS reports there were 8 other relatively weak earthquakes over the last 3 weeks in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, with most striking within 30 miles of today’s.

According to USGS, earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or less are rarely felt or heard by people, but once they exceed 2.0 , more and more people can feel them. While damage is possible with magnitude 3.0 events or greater, significant damage and casualties usually don’t occur until the magnitude of a seismic event rises to a 5.5 or greater rated event.

Earthquakes like the one that hit overnight in the eastern part of Tennessee are unlikely associated with the New Madrid Seismic Zone, an area of ongoing seismic activity located near the Mississippi River. However, while USGS says western Tennessee has a higher frequency of damaging earthquake shaking, the risk isn’t that low in eastern Tennessee.  In the area of this most recent quake, USGS says its likely this area would see 50-100 damaging earthquakes over 10,000 years. While this number is low, it is much higher than it is elsewhere in the eastern half of the United States, where it’s likely to have 10 or less earthquakes over the same period.