A 4.1-magnitude earthquake hit Tennessee on Saturday morning, waking families and shaking homes as far as Atlanta. No injuries or major damage were reported right away.
According to the USGS website, the quake started just after 9 a.m. EDT, around 12 miles from Greenback, Tennessee, which is about 30 miles south of Knoxville.
USGS spokeswoman Ayesha Davis said more than 23,000 people sent in reports during the first hour after the quake. Weather teams in Georgia and North Carolina said they felt it too.
USGS says there’s a 5% chance another quake of magnitude 4 or more could happen in the next week.
Gabriela Reilly and her husband were making waffles in Braselton, Georgia, when they felt their house shake.
“Our ceiling fan started shaking for about 10 seconds,” she said. “I thought a giant aircraft had flown low right over the neighborhood, but my husband said, ‘No, that was definitely an earthquake!’”
Jason Pack was still in bed at his home near Knoxville when he felt the walls move and heard a loud rumble. It woke up his family and made the dog bark.
“In east Tennessee, you’re used to tornadoes and floods, that kind of thing,” Pack said. “It’s unusual to have an earthquake.”
Pack said he’s felt tremors before, but this one may have been the strongest.
A Department of Homeland Security building“Even though this one was small, it’s a good reminder — if it had been a big quake, would you know what to do? Drop, cover, and hold on if you’re inside,” said Pack, a retired FBI agent who works in crisis communication. “Stay clear of buildings if you’re outside.”
USGS says damage usually doesn’t happen until earthquakes are stronger than magnitude 4 or 5, but it depends on building types, soil, and how far you are from the center.
The southeastern U.S. has earthquake risks, especially around the New Madrid Seismic Zone to the west and the East Tennessee Seismic Zone, where this quake occurred, Davis said.
Since 1950, there have been 15 other earthquakes of magnitude 4 or higher within 155 miles of this one, she said. The strongest was a 4.7 magnitude quake near Knoxville in November 1973.
In December 2018, two other tremors hit the same area. One was a 4.4 magnitude quake near Decatur, Tennessee, which shook homes as far as Atlanta.
A few days later, a 3.0 magnitude quake struck about two miles southeast of Mascot, near Knoxville. It was felt in Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
Davis said that earthquakes spread more easily in the Eastern U.S. than in the West because of the way the ground is formed.
“Earthquakes in the East are felt over a much larger distance and by more people,” she said.
