Two earthquakes in less than a week in eastern Tennessee may have southeastern Kentuckians wondering about movement underground where they live. A University of Kentucky seismologist says that’s not likely.
The most recent quake, near Knoxville, carried a 3.0 magnitude, while the earthquake last Wednesday near Decatur, Tenn. was 4.4. Kentucky Geological Survey seismologist Seth Carpenter says those events don’t indicate any imminent threat of shifting in the Commonwealth. Still, a 2012 earthquake in Perry County is worth noting. “That earthquake occurred on faults that we consider to be part of the same system of faults which included these recent Tennessee earthquakes,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter says the earthquake activity in eastern Tennessee is in no way connected to the more well-known New Madrid fault system which includes a portion of western Kentucky.
Much more attention typically focuses on the New Madrid fault zone.
Carpenter says there are two distinct scientific views about future movement in that seismic region. “There’s hot debate and views based on science that seem to give you opposite understanding. It’s either done its thing or its continuing strain. That’s New Madrid,” explained Carpenter.
Carpenter says major earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 caused damage as far away as Charleston South Carolina and was felt in Boston.
