• Earthquake in Tennessee

    Date: Dec 12, 2018 at 8:00 am

    Location: Observatory Park

    Graph of ground motion recorded over 5 minutes from Observatory Park. Map showing the earthquake in eastern Tennessee and Observatory Park in northeast Ohio.

    Wildlife Seen:

    Behavior Observed:

    Just after 4 AM Ohio time on December 12, the seismograph at Observatory Park began to detect vibrations from a light-to-moderate earthquake in Tennessee. The earthquake had a magnitude of 4.4 and caused light to moderate ground shaking in the southeastern U.S.

    By comparison, this was about one-fourth the size of the earthquake that shook northeast Ohio in 1986, which had a magnitude of 5.

    (By the time the earthquake’s vibrations had made the 440-mile trip to Ohio, they caused ground movements smaller than the width of a human hair!)