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Fresh Earthquake Strikes Western Tennessee, Adding to Growing Number Striking There

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The earthquake struck at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles on the map. Image: USGS
The earthquake struck at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles on the map. Image: USGS

According to USGS, a fresh earthquakes struck western Tennessee this morning; it was too weak to create any damage or injuries. However, this earthquake adds to the overall number experienced there and USGS says the volume of earthquakes continue to increase in Tennessee year over year.

The  earthquake struck at 7:02 am from a shallow depth of 5.5 km near the town of Ridgely, Tennessee located in the northwestern corner of the state. Ridgely lies inside the New Madrid Seismic Zone or NMSZ for short. USGS rated this earthquake as a weak magnitude 1.7 event.

USGS says that 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.

While the U.S. West Coast is best known for their earthquakes, there is considerable earthquake risk elsewhere in the country. Image: USGS
While the U.S. West Coast is best known for their earthquakes, there is considerable earthquake risk elsewhere in the country. Image: USGS

The primary emergency advice for an earthquake in Tennessee is to “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” the moment one feels the ground shake. Because Tennessee sits directly between two active fault areas—the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the west and the East Tennessee Seismic Zone in the east—the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) emphasizes being physically and financially prepared for a sudden tremor.

According to USGS, the number of earthquakes in Tennessee is increasing over time. USGS says that the number of earthquakes in Tennessee hovered around just 30-50 per year during the mid-to-late 1990s. That number increased to approximately 150 in the mid-2000s and shot up to nearly 300 in the late 2010s. Over the last 365 days, USGS reports that there have been 297 earthquakes in Tennessee.