An earthquake struck this morning in western Tennessee inside the heart of an area known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, or NMSZ for short. According to USGS, at 6:45 am today from a depth of only 3.8 km, a magnitude 2.2 earthquake struck just outside of Ridgely, Tennessee, which is located in the northwestern corner of the state not far from Missouri, Arkansas, or Kentucky. USGS says this was the 19th earthquake to strike the area over the last 21 days; it was also the third strongest. There were no reports of damage or injuries. According to USGS, today’s earthquake is unrelated to the 2 that struck the western part of the state yesterday.
USGS says that 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.
While today’s quake was weak, it serves as a reminder of the area’s violent seismic past –and a warning of its potentially violent seismic future.
December 16 marks the anniversary of first of three very significant earthquakes to strike this same region during the winter of 1811-1812, a violent time in seismological history of the region that scientists say will be repeated again. While this latest earthquake was relatively inconsequential, authorities are concerned that people aren’t properly prepared for when a big earthquake will strike this region. The matter of a larger destructive earthquake in this area is more of a matter of “when” rather than “if.” These recent earthquakes have been in the heart of the NMSZ where a significant earthquake will likely happen again at some point in the future…