Dozens of people reported to USGS that they felt an earthquake during the early morning hours. According to USGS, at 4:37 am today, a relatively weak magnitude 2.3 earthquake struck from a depth of 8.2 km near the town of Greeneville, Tennessee. The area hit isn’t far from where a magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck in May; that quake generated more than 30,000 reports of shaking into the USGS.
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…