Two earthquakes shake both sides of the North Carolina-Tennessee border, USGS reports
A pair of earthquakes less than 24 hours apart shook either side of the North Carolina-Tennessee border Wednesday evening and early Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.
A 2.5-magnitude quake struck northeast of Knoxville, Tennessee, near a town called Rutledge shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to USGS. At least six people reported feeling the 9.3-mile deep quake to the agency — two as far as 300 miles away in Ohio.
About 1,300 residents live in Rutledge, which is 45 miles from the North Carolina border.
Roughly eight hours later, a 2.3-magnitude earthquake rattled just south of Asheville, North Carolina, according to USGS. The 5.8-mile deep quake shook Laurel Park — about 40 miles from the Tennessee state line — at 1 a.m.
No one in or near the 2,800-person town reported feeling the tremor to the agency.
Magnitude measures the energy released at the source of the earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey says. It replaces the old Richter scale.
Quakes between 2.5 and 5.4 magnitude are often felt but rarely cause much damage, according to Michigan Tech. Though likely to register on a seismograph, anything less than 2.5 is seldom felt.
