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7th earthquake in two weeks hits western NC Tuesday morning

Seven earthquakes have hit the same area of western North Carolina within the past two weeks -- all within a mile of each other.
Posted 2023-06-04T11:41:39+00:00 - Updated 2023-06-06T15:13:05+00:00
UNC professor talks recent stretch of earthquakes in western North Carolina

Seven earthquakes have hit the same area of western North Carolina within the past two weeks – all within a mile of each other.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported the seventh earthquake to hit western NC in the past two weeks Tuesday morning.

A 2.5 magnitude earthquake happened at 4:08 a.m. near Canton, making it the third earthquake to hit the area within the past three days.

WRAL's Elizabeth Gardner said these are just "little tremors." Instrumentation picks it up, but they are not large enough to be felt.

Gardner compared the recent cluster of earthquakes near Canton to summer rain in Phoenix.

"If it never rains, and rain shows up on the radar, it’s a big deal," she said.

"Of these seven earthquakes, only one was strong enough for residents to have felt anything," she said. "The others were detected by instruments, but people living in the area did not feel a thing."

The USGS reported two earthquakes on Sunday, with epicenters 500 feet apart.

On Sunday at 6:09 a.m., a 3.2 magnitude earthquake happened northwest of Asheville. There was a second 2.2 magnitude earthquake Sunday at 8:35 p.m.

(Map from U.S. Geological Survey earthquake.usgs.gov)
(Map from U.S. Geological Survey earthquake.usgs.gov)

There were no reports of any damage.

Although western North Carolina is not on a major fault line, earthquakes are not uncommon in the western part of the state.

"It is not uncommon, historically speaking, for this area to give this type of earthquakes," said Manolis Veveakis, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke University. "Every 30 or 40 years, we have similar activity. We had a similar cluster, in fact, of magnitude four earthquakes that happened in 1957."

Quakes in North Carolina tend to be minor, he said. Most do little to no damage. Only one has been recorded at a magnitude of more than 5.

"We don't really think of this as being a harbinger of something necessarily more more violent," said Dr. Kevin Stewart, a professor within the department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill. "It seems to be part small swarm of earthquakes."

On May 25 the USGS reported three earthquakes, all within the same vicinity.

  1. The first one happened at 6:16 p.m. and was a 2.2 magnitude earthquake.
  2. A second, stronger earthquake happened just minutes after the first one at 6:27 p.m. This quake was a 2.4 magnitude quake.
  3. The final 1.8 magnitude earthquake happened at 7:09 p.m.

A 1.8 magnitude earthquake hit western NC on May 23 at 7:28 p.m.

"Little swarms like this can happen," Stewart said. "We rarely discover the exact reason. There are certainly stresses that build up in the earth's crust and every once in a while they release them. We expect like these to happen from time to time."

This story includes information based on reports from the U.S. Geological Survey.

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