A 4.1-magnitude earthquake in Tennessee woke up families and rattled homes as far away as Atlanta as it spread tremors across portions of the southern U.S. on Saturday morning. No injuries or major damage were immediately reported.
The website for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake originated shortly after 9 a.m. EDT about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Greenback, Tennessee, which is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Knoxville and 84 miles north of Blairsville, Georgia.
Initial reports from USGS rated it a 3.5 magnitude quake with a depth of 26.1 kilometers, but later updated the data.
USGS received more than 23,000 reports from the public in the first hour after the earthquake, USGS spokeswoman Ayesha Davis told The Associated Press in an email.
Felt the earth shake
Shortly after the quake struck, reports flooded into Now Habersham from people across North Georgia and the Southeast who felt the tremor.
“It sounded like someone was stomping on our roof and shaking the house mildly. The squirrels outside were all yelling about it!” said Sandy Waltrip of Clarkesville, Georgia.
Linda Moseley said the floor was “vibrating and dishes rattling” in her home in Lumpkin County.
Michelle Wilson of Eastanollee said she and her family “heard it more than felt it.”
“[It] sounded like a really loud semi truck rumbling down the road. A few of our dishes rattled. My son and I looked at each other and said, ‘I wonder what that was.’ He then went on to say, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if that was actually an earthquake?’ Surprise surprise!”
Others reported feeling the quake in Marietta, Buford, Buckhead, Rabun County, and Seneca, South Carolina, Murphy, North Carolina, and even Alexandria, Alabama.
Seismic zone
There is a 5% chance of a magnitude 4 or larger aftershock in the next week, according to USGS.
Damage does not usually occur from earthquakes until they reach a magnitude of somewhere above 4 or 5, according to USGS, although it depends on variables such as building construction, soil and distance from the epicenter.
The southeastern U.S. carries a significant earthquake risk, particularly around the New Madrid Seismic Zone to the west and in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone, which is where Saturday’s earthquake occurred, said Davis.
Since 1950, 15 other earthquakes of magnitude 4 or larger have occurred within 155 miles (250 kilometers) of Saturday’s earthquake, Davis said. The largest of those was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake near Knoxville in November 1973.
More recently, two tremors struck the seismic zone in December 2018. One was a 4.4 magnitude earthquake centered in Decatur, Tennessee, south of Knoxville. It shook homes as far away as Atlanta.
Another earthquake struck a few days later with a magnitude of 3.0. Its epicenter was about two miles (four kilometers) southeast of Mascot, near Knoxville. People felt it in parts of Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina.
Seismic waves from earthquakes spread more efficiently in the Eastern U.S. compared to the West because of the region’s geology, Davis said.
“Earthquakes in the East are felt over a much larger distance and by more people,” she said.
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