An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 4.1 shook the ground from Farner and all the way through the Copper Basin and Fannin County as it was being felt throughout a large area of the southeast.
Area residents reported the loud roar and shaking ground that started just after 9 a.m. Saturday, May 10, and ended as much as a minute later.
Fannin County Emergency Management Agency Director Patrick Cooke said the 911 Center received several calls concerned over what had happened, but no one had any damage to report.
TVA spokesman Adam May said Saturday afternoon that ground sensors at Blue Ridge Dam “did not indicate ground motions requiring any inspections.” Blue Ridge Dam lies approximately 80 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter, May said.
That epicenter was reported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as located 21 kilometers (approximately 13 miles) southeast of Greenback, Tennessee. Greenback lies just off U.S. Highway 411, just north of Vonore and about 63 miles north of Copperhill.
However, three other TVA dams were much closer to the epicenter.
May said updated information Saturday from the U.S. Geological Survey resulted in a non-emergency inspection by plant personnel at Fontana Dam. TVA’s Dam Safety Team decided to conduct precautionary inspections at Fort Loudon and Tellico dams “out of an abundance of caution,” May said.
“TVA does not currently have any reports of damage or injuries at any of our dam sites,” May said Saturday.
Researchers describe earthquakes of a 4.1 magnitude as light, with shaking felt but associated with only minimal damage. According to Michigan Technological University, there are about 500,000 earthquakes in the light range worldwide every year, measuring 2.5 to 5.4 in magnitude.
The quake was originally reported as measuring 3.5 by the USGS. The higher calculation came later in the weekend.
This was the fourth reported earthquake in eastern Tennessee in the last two weeks, the lightest measuring a magnitude of 1.6.