Scientists Expect More Aftershocks After Wednesday Quake

Wednesday morning’s earthquake in Eastern Tennessee was not as uncommon as you might think.

Don Blakeman is a Geo-physicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Blakeman says earthquakes in the Southeast are not uncommon, but quakes over 4.0 and over are rare.

“They are actually very common, particularly in this area,” he explained. “Where this earthquake happened is part of what’s called the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone. So, there’s a network of faults in that area. So, it’s not uncommon at all to have earthquakes there. It’s a little more uncommon to have one this size. It happens occasionally.”

According to Blakeman, this part of the Country has many fault lines, but they are older and deeper than the ones out west in California, and there are more of them.

He said that’s why Wednesday’s Tennessee quake was felt for a much greater distance than the temblers out west.

And he says the numerous fault lines in our region make it difficult to determine which fault line caused the quake.

“We know where the epicenter is, but we don’t necessarily know exactly where the fault line is,” he said. “Often times, earthquakes are a created by faults that don’t have what we call a surface expression. In other words, there’s no offset at the surface you can look at and map. Sometimes faults are buried much more deeply. So we don’t know yet exactly what that will be. I’m sure this earthquake will be heavily studied though.”

So while quakes the size of Wednesday’s are rare in our region, Blakeman said we can expect more aftershocks.

“There’s a very, very tiny possibility there will be a larger quake. That probably is extremely low, but the probability of having aftershocks is a little bit higher. I would say there will definitely be some aftershocks, “ Blakeman said.

National Weather Service in Morristown, Tennessee said Wednesday’s earthquake was the strongest since 1973 when a magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck the area.