The 2003 Alabama earthquake took place on April 29 at 3:59 A.M. Central Daylight Time (local time when the event occurred) east-northeast of

Fort Payne, Alabama Fort Payne is a city in and county seat of DeKalb County, in northeastern Alabama, United States. It is near Lookout Mountain. At the 2020 census, the population was 14,877. This city developed around a fort of the same name, built in the 183 ...

.
Geologic Survey of Alabama; Geologic Hazards Program; Earthquakes in Alabama; Fort Payne Earthquake April 29, 2003 The number of people who felt this quake was exceptionally high as the earthquake could be felt in 11 states across the East Coast and as far north as southern Indiana. The earthquake was strongly felt throughout metropolitan Atlanta. The Georgia Building Authority was called out to inspect the historic Georgia State Capitol in

downtown Atlanta Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The largest of the city's three commercial districts (Midtown Atlanta, Midtown and Buckhead being the others), it is the location of many corporate and region ...

and other state-owned buildings but found no problems. However, this is not out of the ordinary as earthquakes east of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

can be felt several times the area felt on West Coast earthquakes. The earthquake was given a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

4.6 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...

by the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

(other sources reported as high a magnitude as 4.9) and reports of the duration of the shaking range from 10 seconds to as long as 45 seconds. It is tied with a 1973 earthquake near

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

as the strongest earthquake ever to occur in the Eastern Tennessee seismic zone, which is the second most active

seismic zone In seismology, a seismic zone or seismic belt is an area of seismicity potentially sharing a common cause. It can be referred to as an earthquake belt as well. It may also be a region on a map for which a common areal rate of seismicity is assume ...

east of the Rocky Mountains, with the New Madrid seismic zone the most active.
USGS Poster; M4.6 Fort Payne, Alabama Earthquake of 29 April 2003 The April 29 earthquake caused moderate damage in northern Alabama including a wide sinkhole northwest of Fort Payne. The quake disrupted the local water supply. There were numerous reports of chimney damage, broken windows, and cracked walls, particularly around the area near Hammondville, AL, Hammondville, Mentone and Valley Head, Alabama. Many 9-1-1 call centers were overloaded with worrisome and panicked residents, who thought it was a train derailment, a bomb, or some other type of explosion that had awakened them. There were several aftershocks, all of magnitude 2.0 or lower, and were not widely felt.

References

External links

Geologic Survey of Alabama; Geologic Hazards Program; Earthquakes in AlabamaCenter for Earthquake Research and Information, University Of Memphis, TN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alabama Earthquake, 2003 2003 earthquakes 2003 natural disasters in the United States Earthquakes in the United States Natural disasters in Alabama 2003 in Alabama April 2003 in the United States

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External links