QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

1 km N of Decatur, Tennessee

· 15 km deep · released about 9.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Meigs County 3 kmRhea County 16 kmMcMinn County 19 kmBledsoe County 38 kmBradley County 42 kmRoane County 43 kmLoudon County 49 kmMonroe County 50 kmCumberland County 50 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 1.7 (md)
Depth
15 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Meigs County, 3 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2760 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 9.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 99× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 9.6 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log10E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

Where

Epicentre 35.5300, -84.7893. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Meigs County, TN 3 km (2 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Rhea County, TN 16 km (10 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Rhea County
McMinn County, TN 19 km (12 mi) NW of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Bledsoe County, TN 38 km (24 mi) E of here earthquakes near Bledsoe County
Bradley County, TN 42 km (26 mi) N of here earthquakes near Bradley County
Roane County, TN 43 km (27 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Roane County

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

52 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 1.9 11 km SSW of Decatur, Tennessee
  2. 1.6 7 km WSW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  3. 2.2 7 km SE of Dayton, Tennessee
  4. 1.6 3 km ENE of Philadelphia, Tennessee
  5. 2.4 16 km E of Spring City, Tennessee
  6. 2.3 4 km NNW of Flat Top Mountain, Tennessee
  7. 2.0 3 km SSW of Loudon, Tennessee
  8. 2.1 6 km S of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  9. 2.4 7 km N of Benton, Tennessee
  10. 1.9 Tennessee
  11. 1.5 4 km WSW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  12. 1.9 1 km W of Etowah, Tennessee
  13. 1.9 3 km NNE of Madisonville, Tennessee
  14. 1.9 3 km ESE of Loudon, Tennessee
  15. 2.0 5 km NNE of Tellico Plains, Tennessee

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.4 on 2018-12-12 — it released about 12,000 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.