QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

2 km NNW of Madisonville, Tennessee

· 14 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monroe County 16 kmLoudon County 22 kmMcMinn County 25 kmRoane County 37 kmMeigs County 40 kmBlount County 44 kmPolk County 50 kmRhea County 52 kmCherokee County 53 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Monroe County, 16 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 949 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 5.7 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 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 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 35.5408, -84.3773. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monroe County, TN 16 km (10 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Monroe County
Loudon County, TN 22 km (14 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Loudon County
McMinn County, TN 25 km (16 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Roane County, TN 37 km (23 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Roane County
Meigs County, TN 40 km (25 mi) E of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Blount County, TN 44 km (27 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Blount County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 2 km S of Niota, Tennessee
  2. 1.8 13 km ESE of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  3. 2.1 0 km S of Loudon, Tennessee
  4. 1.9 2 km NE of Niota, Tennessee
  5. 4.1 21 km SE of Greenback, Tennessee
  6. 2.0 5 km NE of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  7. 1.6 6 km NW of Madisonville, Tennessee
  8. 1.6 3 km ENE of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  9. 2.1 12 km E of Benton, Tennessee
  10. 1.6 7 km WSW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  11. 2.0 6 km SSE of Vonore, Tennessee
  12. 1.7 7 km ESE of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  13. 1.8 7 km ESE of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  14. 1.8 5 km S of Louisville, Tennessee
  15. 1.8 6 km SSE 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 21,000 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.