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Two Morning Earthquakes Rattle Eastern Tennessee

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The epicenters for both earthquake are at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles. Image: USGS
The epicenters for both earthquake are at the orange dot inside the colored concentric circles. Image: USGS

 

Two earthquakes rattled eastern Tennessee this morning. According to USGS, the first struck at 9:31 am near Riceville and the second struck just over an hour later at 10:32 am near Benton. Both earthquakes, which were 30 miles apart, were rated as a magnitude 2.0 seismic event. The first struck from a depth of 10.3 km while the second originated at 16.6 km.

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.

Within the last 3 weeks, there were a total of 10  earthquakes within 150 miles of these  latest quakes.

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 in May 2025.

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.