QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.9md

4 km W of Etowah, Tennessee

· 13 km deep · released about 25 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N McMinn County 12 kmPolk County 24 kmMeigs County 31 kmBradley County 32 kmMonroe County 32 kmRhea County 46 kmCherokee County 51 kmLoudon County 52 kmFannin County 56 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 1.9 (md)
Depth
13 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
McMinn County, 12 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 63 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 25 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 420,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 38× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.9 about 25 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 35.3212, -84.5723. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
McMinn County, TN 12 km (8 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near McMinn County
Polk County, TN 24 km (15 mi) N of here earthquakes near Polk County
Meigs County, TN 31 km (19 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Meigs County
Bradley County, TN 32 km (20 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Bradley County
Monroe County, TN 32 km (20 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Monroe County
Rhea County, TN 46 km (29 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Rhea 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. 2.0 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. 1.8 11 km NNE of Decatur, Tennessee
  5. 2.4 10 km NNE of Decatur, Tennessee
  6. 2.0 3 km SW of Tellico Village, Tennessee
  7. 1.6 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  8. 1.8 8 km E of Englewood, Tennessee
  9. 2.0 8 km SSE of Etowah, Tennessee
  10. 2.3 17 km SSW of Tellico Plains, Tennessee
  11. 2.4 18 km N of Ducktown, Tennessee
  12. 1.7 6 km WNW 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 4,700 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.