A weak earthquake rattled the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina today. According to USGS, at 11:49am, a magnitude 1.7 event struck from a depth of 4.8 km near Cullowhee, North Carolina. The quake, which struck northwest of Greenville, South Carolina, southeast of Knoxville, Tennessee, and southwest of Asheville, North Carolina was located within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The earthquake was too weak to generate any damage or injuries.
According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, while North Carolina is no stranger to earthquakes, large, damaging earthquakes are rare. Large, damaging seismic events are rare and the few felt in North Carolina had epicenters outside of the state. Most quakes in North Carolina originate from the East Tennessee seismic zone to the west, the Charleston, South Carolina seismic zone to the south, or the Central Virginia seismic zone to the north. The most common and strongest earthquakes to strike the state have been in the western part along the Appalachian Mountains.
While a person did report they felt the earthquake to USGS, there have been no other reports from the weak seismic event.
