Mon. May 12th, 2025
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A 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook eastern Tennessee, including Knoxville, at 9:04 a.m. EDT Saturday. Image courtesy U.S. Geological Survey

May 10 (UPI) — A 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook eastern Tennessee near Knoxville on Saturday morning and was felt as far away as Asheville, N.C., and Atlanta, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake occurred at 9:04 a.m. EDT and was centered 13 miles from Greenback, which is 30 miles southwest of Knoxville, USGS reported.

The earthquake, originally reported at a 3.5 magnitude, was about 15 miles below ground, which the agency called shallow, but was felt 208 miles away in Asheville and 213 miles away in Atlanta.

According to WVLT-TV, the Tennessee Department of Transportation will be inspecting bridges throughout the next few weeks as a precaution, although Knoxville police and fire departments did not receive any reports of damage, officials told the television station and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

The Knoxville television station did, however, publish Ring camera video showing shaking indoors and two frightened dogs.

Knoxville is in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone, which is one of the most active earthquake areas in the Southeast United States. In the past 30 days, Tennessee has recorded 21 earthquakes of lesser magnitudes and last year had three of magnitude 3.0 or stronger, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

Since 1900, there have been just seven earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or stronger to hit Tennessee, with Saturday’s rumbler the first since a 4.4 magnitude quake in Decatur in 2018.

The East Tennessee Seismic zone includes part of Tennessee, northwestern Georgia and northeastern Alabama, although no major earthquakes have occurred there.

Earthquake magnitudes are calculated using data from seismograms, which record ground motion. Whole numbers represent a tenfold increase in intensity. So an earthquake measured as 6.0 magnitude is 100 times as strong as and earthquake that is 4.0.

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