QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5md

12 km SE of Greenback, Tennessee

· 19 km deep · released about 5.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Blount County 17 kmMonroe County 23 kmLoudon County 28 kmGraham County 34 kmKnox County 46 kmRoane County 50 kmCherokee County 50 kmMcMinn County 53 kmSevier 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 1.5 (md)
Depth
19 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Blount County, 17 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 81 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 5.6 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 2,700,000× 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 5.6 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 35.5907, -84.0662. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Blount County, TN 17 km (10 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Blount County
Monroe County, TN 23 km (14 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Monroe County
Loudon County, TN 28 km (17 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Loudon County
Graham County, NC 34 km (21 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Graham County
Knox County, TN 46 km (29 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Knox County
Roane County, TN 50 km (31 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Roane County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 5 km NNE of Greenback, Tennessee
  2. 2.0 1 km S of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  3. 2.1 1 km S of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  4. 1.7 1 km ENE of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  5. 2.0 3 km SW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  6. 1.6 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  7. 1.8 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  8. 2.2 9 km S of Oak Ridge, Tennessee
  9. 2.3 17 km SSW of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  10. 1.7 6 km WNW of Sweetwater, Tennessee
  11. 2.0 2 km SW of Vonore, Tennessee
  12. 2.4 2 km SW of Vonore, 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 7,700 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.