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10 things to know about earthquake that rattled Georgia

By Nicole Emmett
By Nicole Emmett

ATLANTA — Most of Georgia woke up to the rattling from an earthquake Wednesday morning.

Here are 10 things to know about the quake:

1. It was a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in Decatur, Tennessee at 4:14 a.m. Wednesday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

2. An aftershock of 3.3 magnitude happened about 15 minutes later in Decatur, Tennessee.

3. The earthquake happened along the New Madrid Fault Line, which is along the Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi state lines.

4. The earthquake was the second strongest on record in East Tennessee, according to the USGS. The strongest was a magnitude 4.7 near Maryville in 1973, according to the National Weather Service.

5. It is possible to see some damage from the earthquake, but devastating damage is unlikely, according to Geophysicist Robert Sanders from the U.S. Geological Survey.

6. More than 5,000 people reported feeling the earthquake Wednesday morning, as of 7 a.m.

Did you feel it? Report it here.

7. There have been several small earthquakes in northwest Georgia over the past few years, including a 1.9 magnitude near Villanow, in Walker County, in August.

8. More than three dozen earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater have occurred in Georgia since 1974, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

9. The highest magnitude earthquake in Georgia since 1974 was in Lincoln County in 1974, registering 4.3 on the scale. There was also a 4.2 quake in Whitfield County in 1984.

10. Georgia has not broken 4.0 since then and hasn't broken 3.0 since 2009. (The earthquake Wednesday originated in Tennessee.)

Cox Media Group

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