A weak earthquake rattled central Kentucky earlier today. According to USGS, a magnitude 2.6 earthquake struck at 5:12 am this morning outside of Lancaster, Kentucky which is southeast of Louisville and due south of Cincinnati, Ohio. The earthquake had a depth of 17 km. No reports of damage or injuries was made from this quake.
Today’s earthquake struck outside of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), which is an area of significant seismic unrest located near New Madrid, Missouri and western Kentucky. While many earthquakes have rattled western Kentucky by the NMSZ, USGS reports there have been no other earthquakes of any magnitude around today’s epicenter for the last 30 days.
According to the Kentucky Geological Survey at the University of Kentucky , earthquakes have occurred in and around Kentucky in the past and continue to occur. The strongest historic earthquake recorded inside Kentucky’s borders was a magnitude 5.2 Sharpsburg earthquake which struck on July 27, 1980, in Bath County. The quake caused an estimated $3 million in damage in Maysville. The 4.2 magnitude earthquake in 2012 to strike Perry County caused minor damage to the Letcher County Courthouse in southeastern Kentucky. The most significant earthquakes to have affected Kentucky occurred from December 1811 to February 1812 in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
