4.0 earthquake shakes New Madrid fault zone, felt in Memphis
A magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck the New Madrid fault zone in southeastern Missouri, with shaking felt across the surrounding region, including the Memphis area, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The earthquake happened at 12:59 p.m. Thursday and was centered about 1 mile northeast of Cooter, Missouri, near the borders with Tennessee and Arkansas. The epicenter was about 60 miles north of Memphis, and the quake struck at a shallow depth of about 7 miles, according to USGS data.
Shaking was reported across the tri-state region, with additional reports from parts of Kentucky, southern Illinois and northern Mississippi.
The strongest shaking was estimated near the epicenter, where about 27,000 people may have felt light shaking, according to USGS. The agency said shaking at that strength is usually noticeable by many indoors, can rock parked cars and may feel like a heavy truck hitting a building.
A much larger area, including the Memphis metro, may have felt weaker shaking. USGS estimated that nearly 2.3 million people were in areas where the earthquake may have been noticeable indoors, especially on upper floors, though many people may not have recognized it as an earthquake.
Hundreds of reports were submitted to USGS by people who felt the earthquake, including from as far away as Paducah, Kentucky, southern Illinois and northern Mississippi.
The earthquake happened while the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency in Tennessee was hosting a meeting of the West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission on earthquake preparedness.
“In a twist of timing you couldn’t plan if you tried, during the meeting, a 4.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Missouri Bootheel,” Fayette County EMA said. “A real-time reminder of exactly why preparedness, coordination, and partnerships like this matter.”
The quake struck in the New Madrid fault zone, one of the most seismically active areas in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.
The fault zone produced a series of powerful earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, with estimated magnitudes of about 7.0 to 8.0, among the strongest recorded in the contiguous United States. The region remains active more than two centuries later, with hundreds of small earthquakes recorded each year, though most are too weak to be felt.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
