QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9md

11 km SSW of Decatur, Tennessee

· 19 km deep · released about 25 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Meigs County 11 kmMcMinn County 18 kmRhea County 24 kmBradley County 30 kmBledsoe County 40 kmPolk County 42 kmHamilton County 45 kmMonroe County 51 kmSequatchie County 54 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 1.9 (md)
Depth
19 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Meigs County, 11 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2090 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 25 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 620,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 440,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 39× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 25 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 35.4177, -84.8150. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Meigs County, TN 11 km (7 mi) S of here earthquakes near Meigs County
McMinn County, TN 18 km (11 mi) W of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Rhea County, TN 24 km (15 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Rhea County
Bradley County, TN 30 km (18 mi) N of here earthquakes near Bradley County
Bledsoe County, TN 40 km (25 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Bledsoe County
Polk County, TN 42 km (26 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Polk County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 9 km WNW of Hopewell, Tennessee
  2. 2.1 13 km E of Benton, Tennessee
  3. 1.9 10 km S of Spring City, Tennessee
  4. 1.7 4 km W of Etowah, Tennessee
  5. 2.4 1 km SE of Etowah, Tennessee
  6. 1.7 8 km ENE of Wildwood Lake, Tennessee
  7. 2.2 7 km ENE of East Cleveland, Tennessee
  8. 1.9 3 km N of Niota, Tennessee
  9. 1.5 3 km N of Englewood, Tennessee
  10. 2.0 Tennessee
  11. 2.1 2 km WNW of Niota, Tennessee
  12. 2.2 8 km ENE of Dunlap, Tennessee
  13. 2.2 4 km ENE of Madisonville, Tennessee
  14. 2.0 1 km ENE of Dayton, Tennessee
  15. 1.8 4 km SW of Sweetwater, 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 4,900 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.