A morning earthquake rattled portions of Georgia today in an area north and west of Atlanta. According to USGS, a relatively weak magnitude 2.4 earthquake struck from a depth of 5.5 km at 6:37 am this morning near the town of LaFayette, which is north west of Atlanta and due south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Today’s earthquake is the strongest of three earthquakes to strike nearby in recent weeks. On November 8, a weaker magnitude 1.7 earthquake struck 3 miles away from today’s near Linwood. On November 13, an even weaker magnitude 1.5 earthquake struck near Chickamauga which is about 10 miles north of today’s.
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.
According to Georgia’s Emergency Management and Home Security Agency (GEMA), approximately 15 percent of the world’s earthquakes are scattered over areas like Georgia that lack clearly defined active faults. Although earthquakes in Georgia are comparatively rare, scattered earthquakes caused significant damage and are an important consideration for homeowners. Georgia’s northwest counties, South Carolina border counties, and central and west central Georgia counties are most at risk…