USGS is reporting that an earthquake struck eastern Tennessee north of Knoxville near the town of Town Creek . USGS rated this quake as a magnitude 2.6 earthquake and said it struck from a depth of 23.7 km; it struck today at 3:07 pm. There were no reports of damage or injuries.
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 5 other earthquakes within 150 miles of this latest quake; today’s earthquake was the strongest of those 5.
Today’s earthquake struck not far from where a more significant magnitude 4.1 event struck last May…