Tuesday quake rattles portions of Whitley County

In case you missed, and you probably did, a minor earthquake struck Whitley County Tuesday morning.
According to the U.S. Geologic Survey, a 3.1 magnitude earthquake struck about 3 miles north east of Williamsburg at 6:20 a.m. this morning.

“3.1 is a minor earthquake. We had one report that it was felt,” John Bellini, a geophysicist with the U.S.G.S. said about 11 a.m. “A 3.1, if you are asleep then you are probably going to miss it. Something like that would be a quick jolt or bang that lasts a couple of seconds and that is pretty much it.”
He said a quake of this size would feel like a large truck going by your home, a strong gust or wind or a clap of thunder.
A graphic map, produced by the U.S.Geological Survey, shows the exact center of the earthquake.

Bellini said movement on a fault causes all earthquakes.

“You get some earthquakes there from time to time. They are not very common but they do happen in that part of Southeast Kentucky in the Middlesboro area and across the border into North Carolina and into Georgia,” he noted.

Whitley County Emergency Management Director Danny Moses, who was awake when the quake hit but didn’t feel anything, said that he had received no reports of damage from the quake.

Williamsburg firefighters and 911 dispatchers received a handful of calls from the Croley Bend area, near the city school and in Highland Park.

In September 2004, Corbin residents felt an earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale.
For more information about the recent earthquake or earthquakes in general, go to the U.S. Geologic Survey website at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/.