A Magnitude 6 Earthquake Could Be Possible In East Tennessee

By Cody McClure

Like some of you reading, probably, I was awoken by a 4.1 magnitude earthquake Saturday morning.

Did I overreact by leaping from my bed and running outside in my underwear to see what was going on?

Probably.

But I really did think the roof of my domicile was about to cave in. It was enough to wake me up from a pretty good slumber.

I’m a deep sleeper. Hell, I slept through Hurricane Ivan. So for me personally, this was a REAL earthquake experience.

This was one of the strongest earthquakes to hit this region since 1900, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

From an expert the News Sentinel spoke with:

“You guys are in earthquake country, you're in tornado country. And we always tell people when they feel an earthquake, think of that as a wake-up call.”

A wake-up call. Literally.

This one wasn’t as rough as the 4.7 magnitude quake that shook Alcoa in 1973 or the 4.5 magnitude quake that hit Greenville in 1928— but it’s up there.

The expert the News Sentinel spoke with said the East Tennessee Seismic Zone is the one “we know the least about.”

Great.

“It's a concern because it's long enough that it could have a pretty good size earthquake on it if the whole thing ruptures.”

This area is not known for having earthquakes that typically cause significant destruction, but the expert did say a magnitude 6 earthquakes could be possible.

Luckily, those only happen every 2,000 to 3,000 years, per the report.