Feel a rumbling this morning? That was a 3.1 magnitude earthquake, centered 27 miles southeast of Asheville.
According to information from the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake took place at 6:07 a.m., was centered just north of Mill Spring and reached about 5 miles underground. So far, no damage has been reported from the quake.
A 3.1 on the Richter scale, the force was roughly equivalent to that of a large military bomb. Earthquakes in WNC generally tend to be of much less magnitude than those in the Western U.S., but are also felt over a wider area.
— David Forbes, staff writer
According to information from the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake took place at 6:07 a.m., was centered just north of Mill Spring and reached about 5 miles underground. So far, no damage has been reported from the quake.
A 3.1 on the Richter scale, the force was roughly equivalent to that of a large military bomb. Earthquakes in WNC generally tend to be of much less magnitude than those in the Western U.S., but are also felt over a wider area.
— David Forbes, staff writer
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Earthquake in Asheville! Sounds like 2012 is coming....
Is this place safe??
By Virato
12/09/2007
Earthquake's happen thousands of times a day all over the planet, too suggest that there is any other-worldly cause to geologic activity is asinine.
By shadmarsh
12/10/2007
Yes, I have heard of 1.2 and 1.7, but never 3.1 on the Richter scale!
By Virato
12/10/2007
Perhaps a 3.1 is uncommon in human time, but not in geologic time.
By shadmarsh
12/10/2007
so WNC sits on a huge fault line...not very shocking at all.
By harry
12/13/2007
As bad as the economy is these days, be glad if you don't have to be taking out payday loans to be patching drywall. Charleston, South Carolina, was hit by a minor earthquake last week that caused mostly minor damage. No homes were destroyed, and there weren't major injuries as a result. Charleston isn't known as an earthquake hot spot in the U.S. like California is, but quakes do happen there. The most recent one measured a 3.6 on the Richter scale. 3.6 isn't a major event, but cleaning up after it is a royal pain in the neck. The history of the region has been that a small quake, like the one that just happened, is a usual precedent of a much larger one to come. An earthquake rocked Charleston in 1886 that killed upwards of a hundred people and cost millions to repair, and measured between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter. The Great San Francisco Quake of 1906, by comparison, was over 9.0 on the Richter. (A 10 has never been seen or recorded in the span of human history, and isn't achievable by atomic blasts.) Earthquakes are tough to predict, because the only indicators that tell of one happening are apparent only right before the event. You can read the article called "Charleston Earthquake | Payday Will Be Spent Fixing Drywall", on the payday loan news blog at personalmoneystore.com.
By TreyW
01/02/2009