QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

11 km WNW of Sweetwater, Tennessee

· 8.6 km deep · released about 6.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Roane County 22 kmLoudon County 25 kmMcMinn County 26 kmMeigs County 27 kmRhea County 35 kmMonroe County 37 kmCumberland County 51 kmMorgan County 55 kmBledsoe County 58 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
8.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Roane County, 22 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2060 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 6.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.4 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 35.6510, -84.5712. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Roane County, TN 22 km (14 mi) S of here earthquakes near Roane County
Loudon County, TN 25 km (16 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Loudon County
McMinn County, TN 26 km (16 mi) N of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Meigs County, TN 27 km (17 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Rhea County, TN 35 km (22 mi) E of here earthquakes near Rhea County
Monroe County, TN 37 km (23 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monroe County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 Tennessee
  2. 1.7 3 km NE of Greenback, Tennessee
  3. 1.8 Tennessee
  4. 1.8 4 km NE of Vonore, Tennessee
  5. 2.2 4 km ENE of Madisonville, Tennessee
  6. 2.0 1 km ENE of Dayton, Tennessee
  7. 1.8 4 km SW of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  8. 2.0 Tennessee
  9. 2.5 2 km N of Farragut, Tennessee
  10. 1.9 8 km SSE of Vonore, Tennessee
  11. 2.5 7 km WSW of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  12. 1.5 6 km NNW of Philadelphia, Tennessee
  13. 1.9 6 km E of Vonore, Tennessee
  14. 1.9 15 km WNW of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  15. 1.5 5 km E of Niota, 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 19,000 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.