QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1md

3 km NNE of Athens, Tennessee

· 9.9 km deep · released about 38 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N McMinn County 7 kmMeigs County 22 kmMonroe County 30 kmRhea County 37 kmLoudon County 37 kmPolk County 41 kmRoane County 42 kmBradley County 44 kmBledsoe County 59 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 2.1 (md)
Depth
9.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
McMinn County, 7 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2705 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 38 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 390,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 280,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 25× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 38 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 35.4735, -84.5747. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
McMinn County, TN 7 km (4 mi) NE of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Meigs County, TN 22 km (14 mi) E of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Monroe County, TN 30 km (18 mi) W of here earthquakes near Monroe County
Rhea County, TN 37 km (23 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Rhea County
Loudon County, TN 37 km (23 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Loudon County
Polk County, TN 41 km (25 mi) N of here earthquakes near Polk County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 11 km SE of Vonore, Tennessee
  2. 1.9 1 km W of Etowah, Tennessee
  3. 1.9 3 km NNE of Madisonville, Tennessee
  4. 1.9 3 km ESE of Loudon, Tennessee
  5. 2.0 5 km NNE of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  6. 1.6 11 km SW of Rockwood, Tennessee
  7. 2.3 12 km SW of Rockwood, Tennessee
  8. 2.2 15 km S of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  9. 1.8 3 km SW of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  10. 2.4 4 km WSW of Tellico Village, TN
  11. 2.3 4 km N of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  12. 2.4 19 km W of Lake Santeetlah, North Carolina
  13. 2.0 5 km E of East Cleveland, Tennessee
  14. 2.2 10 km SSW of Benton, Tennessee
  15. 1.6 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 3,100 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.