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Early Morning Earthquake Rattles Tennessee Near Knoxville

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The earthquake struck at the gold star inside the colored concentric circles on the map. Image: USGS
The earthquake struck at the gold star inside the colored concentric circles on the map. Image: USGS

An early morning earthquake struck eastern Tennessee Tuesday morning, adding to the overall number of earthquakes the state has seen in the last few weeks. According to USGS, the earthquake struck from a depth of 14.6 km at 3:07 am near the town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Oak Ridge is roughly 15 miles west of Knoxville. The minor quake was rated a relatively weak magnitude 2.2. There have been 8 other earthquakes near Knoxville in the last 3 weeks according to USGS.

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

Earthquakes like the one that hit 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.

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. So far this year, there have been 285 earthquakes in Tennessee.