Maryville, Tenn. - Residents in the Maryville area (click here) may have gotten a shaky surprise on Friday morning.
According to the USGS, a small earthquake hit the town at around 4:30 a.m.
The USGS said it was a magnitude 2.0 quake.
This seismic event is just one of many to hit the East Tennessee area in the last few months.
April 23, 2019
Lenoir City, Tenn. - If you felt the ground shake (click here) Tuesday morning, you're not crazy. The USGS reports a magnitude 2.1 earthquake hit Lenoir City around 3:30 a.m.
Magnitude 2.1 is small enough that many people may have slept right through it. No damage has been reported.
April 4, 2019
Maryville, Tenn. - The 911 center in Blount County (click here) said dozens of people have called with reports of loud booming in Maryville.
According to the USGS, four earthquakes hit near Maryville on Thursday. Two around 1 p.m., a 2.4 and a 1.8 magnitude, one around 5 p.m., a 1.4, and another around 7:45 p.m., a 1.4 magnitude.
Callers reported hearing loud sounds in the Sandy Springs area and near Maryville High School, one dispatcher said. Officers were sent out to check the surroundings, but did not find the cause.
Reports on the booms have been coming in periodically, the dispatcher said. One dispatcher said she had received about 30 calls on the subject.
"The last call I got the guy said he'd heard it five times throughout the afternoon," she said.
When an earthquake hit Greenback in mid-March, many people reported hearing loud booms. The USGS says, "No one knows for sure, but scientists speculate that these "booms" are probably small shallow earthquakes that are too small to be recorded, but large enough to be felt by people nearby."
