QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

11 km S of Tellico Plains, Tennessee

· 7.9 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Monroe County 22 kmCherokee County 25 kmPolk County 28 kmMcMinn County 35 kmGraham County 43 kmFannin County 43 kmBradley County 53 kmLoudon County 53 kmClay 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 1.8 (md)
Depth
7.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Monroe County, 22 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 151 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 15 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 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 730,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 65× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 35.2550, -84.2923. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Monroe County, TN 22 km (14 mi) S of here earthquakes near Monroe County
Cherokee County, NC 25 km (15 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Cherokee County
Polk County, TN 28 km (17 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Polk County
McMinn County, TN 35 km (22 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Graham County, NC 43 km (27 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Graham County
Fannin County, GA 43 km (27 mi) N of here earthquakes near Fannin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 1 km S of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  2. 2.1 1 km S of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  3. 1.7 1 km ENE of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  4. 2.0 3 km SW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  5. 1.6 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  6. 1.8 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  7. 2.0 8 km SSE of Etowah, Tennessee
  8. 2.3 17 km SSW of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  9. 2.4 18 km N of Ducktown, Tennessee
  10. 1.7 6 km WNW of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  11. 1.9 4 km W of Etowah, Tennessee
  12. 2.0 2 km SW of Vonore, Tennessee
  13. 2.4 2 km SW of Vonore, Tennessee
  14. 1.5 12 km SE of Greenback, Tennessee
  15. 2.0 3 km ESE of Tellico Village, 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 4.1 on 2025-05-10 — it released about 2,900 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.