QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

9 km NNW of Decatur, Tennessee

· 21 km deep · released about 7.1 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Meigs County 10 kmRhea County 12 kmMcMinn County 26 kmBledsoe County 35 kmRoane County 38 kmCumberland County 42 kmLoudon County 48 kmBradley County 50 kmMonroe 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
21 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Meigs County, 10 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1580 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 7.1 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.1 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 35.6015, -84.8143. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Meigs County, TN 10 km (6 mi) N of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Rhea County, TN 12 km (8 mi) E of here earthquakes near Rhea County
McMinn County, TN 26 km (16 mi) NW of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Bledsoe County, TN 35 km (22 mi) E of here earthquakes near Bledsoe County
Roane County, TN 38 km (24 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Roane County
Cumberland County, TN 42 km (26 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Cumberland County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 6 km ENE of Etowah, Tennessee
  2. 1.7 4 km ENE of Niota, Tennessee
  3. 2.1 3 km ENE of Niota, Tennessee
  4. 1.6 9 km SW of Spring City, Tennessee
  5. 1.8 4 km SSW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  6. 2.3 1 km NW of Niota, Tennessee
  7. 1.8 5 km NNE of Niota, Tennessee
  8. 2.0 5 km S of Englewood, Tennessee
  9. 2.2 9 km NNW of Graysville, Tennessee
  10. 1.7 2 km SSE of Philadelphia, Tennessee
  11. 1.9 3 km N of Madisonville, Tennessee
  12. 1.6 7 km W of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  13. 2.0 5 km NW of Madisonville, Tennessee
  14. 2.2 10 km W of Graysville, Tennessee
  15. 1.8 4 km WSW of Decatur, 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 17,000 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.