According to USGS, Alabama was rattled by an earthquake during the overnight hours. A relatively weak earthquake rated as a magnitude 2.1 event struck near Tuscaloosa in the west central part of the state. The earthquake rattled the area at 1:53 am today and the earthquake’s epicenter had a depth of 4.2 km.
Earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or less are rarely felt or heard by people, according to USGS, 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 the Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA), earthquakes aren’t completely rare in the state. According to GSA, “Most of the earthquakes we experience in Alabama are associated with the Southern Appalachian Seismic Zone (an extension of the East Tennessee Seismic Zone) that runs along the Appalachian Mountains from the northeastern corner into the central part of the state and the Bahamas Fracture Seismic Zone in southern Alabama.
The strongest earthquake to ever hit the state was a magnitude 5.1 event in 1916 in northern Shelby County…