QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

4 km W of Athens, Tennessee

· 8.5 km deep · released about 14 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N McMinn County 2 kmMeigs County 18 kmRhea County 33 kmMonroe County 35 kmBradley County 38 kmPolk County 38 kmLoudon County 44 kmRoane County 46 kmBledsoe 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
McMinn County, 2 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1695 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 14 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 790,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 70× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 14 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 35.4398, -84.6370. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
McMinn County, TN 2 km (1 mi) NW of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Meigs County, TN 18 km (11 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Rhea County, TN 33 km (21 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Rhea County
Monroe County, TN 35 km (22 mi) W of here earthquakes near Monroe County
Bradley County, TN 38 km (23 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Bradley County
Polk County, TN 38 km (23 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Polk County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 7 km SSE of Vonore, Tennessee
  2. 2.6 9 km NNW of Graysville, Tennessee
  3. 1.5 2 km NNW of Madisonville, Tennessee
  4. 1.7 5 km E of Niota, Tennessee
  5. 2.4 7 km E of Etowah, Tennessee
  6. 2.2 7 km ENE of Niota, Tennessee
  7. 2.0 10 km NNW of Dayton, Tennessee
  8. 2.4 9 km WNW of Hopewell, Tennessee
  9. 1.9 17 km SSE of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  10. 2.1 13 km E of Benton, Tennessee
  11. 1.9 10 km S of Spring City, Tennessee
  12. 2.1 6 km WSW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  13. 1.9 11 km E of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  14. 1.7 4 km W of Etowah, Tennessee
  15. 2.4 1 km SE of Etowah, 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 8,800 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.