Another Earthquake Shakes Eastern Tennessee

The epicenter of today's earthquake is at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles. Image: USGS — The epicenter of today’s earthquake is at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles. Image: USGS

For the second time in as many days, another relatively weak earthquake has hit eastern Tennessee giving people a gentle shake there. According to USGS, at 7:41 am this morning a magnitude 2.0 earthquake struck from a depth of 7.5 km near the town of Tellico Village which is roughly 30 miles southwest of Knoxville. This is the second earthquake to strike in as many days in Tennessee, with yesterday’s striking northeast of Knoxville.

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

Earthquakes like the one that this morning 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.