Fort Payne earthquake
Encyclopedia
Fort Payne, Alabama
Fort Payne is a city in DeKalb County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 12,938. The city is the county seat of DeKalb County. It bills itself as the "Official Sock Capital of the World."...
. The number of people who felt this quake was exceptionally high as the earthquake could be felt in 11 states across the East Coast 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
Georgia State Capitol
The Georgia State Capitol, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States, is an architecturally and historically significant building. It has been named a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the main office building of Georgia's government...
in downtown
Downtown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
Atlanta and other state-owned building
Building
In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...
s, but found no problems. However, this is not out of the ordinary as earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
can be felt over even larger areas. The earthquake was given a magnitude
Seismology
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...
4.6 on the Moment Magnitude Scale
Moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of...
by the USGS (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, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
as the strongest earthquake ever to occur in the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone
Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone
The Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone is a geographic area subject to frequent small earthquakes which stretches from northeast Alabama to southwest Virginia. The Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone is also known as the East Tennessee Seismic Zone and the Southern Appalachian Seismic Zone...
, which is the second most active seismic zone east of the Rocky Mountains, with the New Madrid Seismic Zone
New Madrid Seismic Zone
The New Madrid Seismic Zone , sometimes called the New Madrid Fault Line, is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intraplate earthquakes in the southern and midwestern United States, stretching to the southwest from New Madrid, Missouri.The New Madrid fault system was responsible for the...
the most active.
The April 29 earthquake caused moderate damage in northern Alabama including a 29 feet (8.8 m) wide sinkhole northwest of Fort Payne. The quake also disrupted the local water supply. There were also numerous reports of chimney damage, broken windows, and cracked walls, particularly around the area near Hammondville, Mentone, and Valley Head, Alabama
Valley Head, Alabama
Valley Head is a town in DeKalb County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 611.-Geography:Valley Head is located at .According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....
. Many 9-1-1
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
call centers were overloaded with worrisome and panicked residents, who thought it was a train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
derailment
Derailment
A derailment is an accident on a railway or tramway in which a rail vehicle, or part or all of a train, leaves the tracks on which it is travelling, with consequent damage and in many cases injury and/or death....
, a bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
, or some other type of explosion
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
which had awakened them. There were several aftershocks, but all were of magnitude 2.0 or lower and so were not widely felt.
External links
- Geologic Survey of Alabama; Geologic Hazards Program; Earthquakes in Alabama
- Center for Earthquake Research and Information, University Of Memphis, TN
- http://www.indiana.edu/~pepp/earthquakes/georgia4_29_03.htm Indiana University PEPP Program; April 29, 2003 Fort Payne, Alabama Earthquake - contains extensive collection of media reports about the event