QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

9 km SW of Spring City, Tennessee

· 12 km deep · released about 8.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Rhea County 4 kmMeigs County 18 kmBledsoe County 24 kmCumberland County 35 kmMcMinn County 38 kmRoane County 45 kmVan Buren County 47 kmSequatchie County 51 kmBradley 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
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Rhea County, 4 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 704 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 8.7 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 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 110× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 8.7 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 35.6380, -84.9467. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Rhea County, TN 4 km (3 mi) N of here earthquakes near Rhea County
Meigs County, TN 18 km (11 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Bledsoe County, TN 24 km (15 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Bledsoe County
Cumberland County, TN 35 km (22 mi) S of here earthquakes near Cumberland County
McMinn County, TN 38 km (24 mi) NW of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Roane County, TN 45 km (28 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Roane County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 1 km ENE of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  2. 1.8 11 km NNE of Decatur, Tennessee
  3. 2.4 10 km NNE of Decatur, Tennessee
  4. 1.7 6 km WNW of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  5. 1.9 4 km W of Etowah, Tennessee
  6. 2.0 6 km WSW of Riceville, Tennessee
  7. 2.3 4 km SSW of Kingston, Tennessee
  8. 2.1 5 km S of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  9. 2.2 10 km WNW of Philadelphia, Tennessee
  10. 1.9 5 km SSW of Riceville, Tennessee
  11. 1.9 8 km WSW of Etowah, Tennessee
  12. 2.2 10 km WNW of Philadelphia, Tennessee
  13. 2.0 6 km ENE of Niota, Tennessee
  14. 2.2 2 km W of Dayton, Tennessee
  15. 2.1 4 km NNW of Dayton, 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 14,000 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.