Morning Earthquake Rattles Georgia North and West of Atlanta

Today's earthquake struck at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles on this map. Image: USGS — Today’s earthquake struck at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles on this map. Image: USGS

A morning earthquake rattled portions of Georgia today in an area north and west of Atlanta. According to USGS, a relatively weak magnitude 2.4 earthquake struck from a depth of 5.5 km at 6:37 am this morning near the town of LaFayette, which is north west of Atlanta and due south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Today’s earthquake is the strongest of three earthquakes to strike nearby in recent weeks. On November 8, a weaker magnitude 1.7 earthquake struck 3 miles away from today’s near Linwood. On November 13, an even weaker magnitude 1.5 earthquake struck near Chickamauga which is about 10 miles north 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.

This map illustrates earthquake activity in and around Georgia cataloged by the USGS between 1903 and 2020. Image: Georgia Earthquake Awareness Guide 2020

According to Georgia’s Emergency Management and Home Security Agency (GEMA), approximately 15 percent of the world’s earthquakes are scattered over areas like Georgia that lack clearly defined active faults. Although earthquakes in Georgia are comparatively rare, scattered earthquakes caused significant damage and are an important consideration for homeowners. Georgia’s northwest counties, South Carolina border counties, and central and west central Georgia counties are most at risk.

GEMA recommends that people in Georgia plan for the risk of damaging earthquakes, especially if they’re in the northern Georgia counties of Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Fannin, Floyd, Gilmer, Gordon, Murray, Pickens, Rabun, Towns, Union, Walker, and Whitfield, the South Carolina border counties of Burke, Chatham, Columbia, Effingham, Elbert, Lincoln, Richmond, and Screven, and central and west-central counties of Twiggs, Bibb, Jones, Baldwin, Hancock, Greene, Putnam, Butts, Jasper, Newton, Morgan, Walton, Harris, and Muscogee.

GEMA writes, “It’s important to be aware of your earthquake risk and to know how to protect yourself.” They encourage people to take a moment now to learn basic steps they should take before, during, and after an earthquake.