Witnesses report feeling earthquake near Blue Ridge Parkway in NC, USGS says

A 2.2 earthquake was recorded Friday in the Sparta area of North Carolina, which is the same town where a 5.1 quake ruptured the ground in 2020.

The latest earthquake happened around 12:15 p.m. and was centered about 4.4 miles south-southeast of Sparta, between the Blue Ridge Parkway and Bullhead Mountain State Natural Area, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a Feb. 13 news release. The source was about a half-mile deep, officials said.

Nearly 20 people have filed witness reports with the USGS, many reporting IV intensity, which includes weak shaking and hanging objects swinging back and forth.

Most of the reports came from people living in or near Sparta, which is about a 100-mile drive northwest from uptown Charlotte. Three reports were filed by people in South Carolina, including one 175 miles to the south in Lexington.

Sparta’s 5.1 earthquake in August 2020 ruptured the ground, creating a 1.5 mile-long “step-like scarp” that reached heights of 9 inches, according to a peer-reviewed scientific paper published in the Geological Society of America.

The quake exposed a previously unknown fault, representing “the first documented surface rupture earthquake in the eastern U.S.,” N.C. State University reported.

Geologists named the newly discovered fault line the Little River fault, and they note there is evidence earthquakes happened there in the past.

This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 2:44 PM.