Two earthquakes rattled eastern Tennessee this morning. According to USGS, the first struck at 9:31 am near Riceville and the second struck just over an hour later at 10:32 am near Benton. Both earthquakes, which were 30 miles apart, were rated as a magnitude 2.0 seismic event. The first struck from a depth of 10.3 km while the second originated at 16.6 km.
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 a total of 10 earthquakes within 150 miles of these latest quakes.
Today’s earthquake struck not far from where a more significant magnitude 4.1 event struck in May 2025…