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Second Earthquake in Two Days Rattles Eastern Tennessee

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Today's earthquake struck at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles on this map. Image: USGS
Today’s earthquake struck at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles on this map. Image: USGS

The second earthquake in two days rattled portions of eastern Tennessee early today. According to USGS, the weak magnitude 1.8 earthquake struck at 2:50 am today from a depth of 18.3 km near the town of Maryville, which is just south of Knoxville. This earthquake struck roughly 50 miles south of yesterday’s magnitude 2.6 earthquake which struck from a depth of 23.7 km at 3:07 pm near Middlesboro.  While some reported they felt shaking to the USGS via their “Did you feel it?” online website reporting tool, there were no reports of damage or injuries.

According to USGS, 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.

Earthquake hazards are possible in broad areas of the United States. Earthquake hazard map showing peak ground accelerations having a 2 percent probability of being exceeded in 50 years, for a firm rock site. The map illustrates such hazards and is based on the most recent USGS models for the conterminous U.S. (2018), Hawaii (1998), and Alaska (2007). Image: USGS
Earthquake hazards are possible in broad areas of the United States. Earthquake hazard map showing peak ground accelerations having a 2 percent probability of being exceeded in 50 years, for a firm rock site. The map illustrates such hazards and is based on the most recent USGS models for the conterminous U.S. (2018), Hawaii (1998), and Alaska (2007). Image: USGS

Today’s earthquake struck not far from where a  more significant magnitude 4.1 event struck last May.

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.

This earthquake in Tennessee joins several other relatively weak earthquakes to strike the eastern U.S. in recent weeks, joining other recent earthquakes in the east  in North Carolina, New Hampshire,   Georgia,  Kentucky,  Louisiana, Arkansas,  Alabama,  and Maine.