QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

6 km SW of Decatur, Tennessee

· 21 km deep · released about 13 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Meigs County 5 kmRhea County 18 kmMcMinn County 20 kmBradley County 35 kmBledsoe County 37 kmHamilton County 47 kmPolk County 48 kmRoane County 51 kmMonroe 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
21 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Meigs County, 5 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 391 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 13 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 1,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 840,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 75× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 35.4655, -84.8345. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Meigs County, TN 5 km (3 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Rhea County, TN 18 km (11 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Rhea County
McMinn County, TN 20 km (12 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Bradley County, TN 35 km (22 mi) N of here earthquakes near Bradley County
Bledsoe County, TN 37 km (23 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Bledsoe County
Hamilton County, TN 47 km (29 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Hamilton County

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

Aftershocks so far

30 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. 1.6 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  5. 1.8 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  6. 2.0 8 km SSE of Etowah, Tennessee
  7. 2.3 17 km SSW of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  8. 1.7 6 km WNW of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  9. 1.9 4 km W of Etowah, Tennessee
  10. 2.1 7 km ESE of Benton, Tennessee
  11. 2.0 8 km E of Benton, Tennessee
  12. 2.0 6 km WSW of Riceville, Tennessee
  13. 2.4 5 km E of Etowah, Tennessee
  14. 2.1 5 km S of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  15. 1.8 4 km E of Madisonville, 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 9,400 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.