DeKalb County incurred the wrath of Mother Nature last week in at least a couple of ways; first by a severe hail storm that pummeled the western portion of the county, and later with an earthquake that could be felt all across the area. While the earthquake only served to fray some nerves, the hail storm did cause some damage.

On Thursday, May 8, the skies darkened in the Liberty/Alexandria area of the county with severe thunderstorms moving through. As the storms formed, quarter to golf ball-sized hail pelted the area, stripping trees of leaves and leaving as much as two inches of ice covering local roadways.

The ice-covered roads caused at least two vehicles to slide off the roadway, though no injuries were reported. The hail did leave its mark, busting out taillights and leaving vehicles dented. Local residents reported that the ice did not melt in the area for several hours, and a low-lying fog soon formed across the region.

On Saturday, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake on the Richter Scale was felt throughout Tennessee and, especially, in the eastern section of the Volunteer state.   The majority of the shaking occurred as the earthquake hit around 9 a.m.  The target location was in Blount County, Tennessee, which is near the North Carolina state line and could be felt as far as Atlanta, Georgia. 

The earthquake was later confirmed by the United States Geographical Survey, the governing body of earthquake dissemination.  The depth of the earthquake was measured to be around 15.5 miles below the surface.

Some parts of Middle Tennessee, including DeKalb County, reported “feeling shaking from more than 100 miles away.” Other counties, such as Putnam County, White County, and Warren County reported also feeling the earthquake’s (fury),” WKRN revealed.

According to Dr. Glenn Todd Webb, “Earthquake in Greenback, TN.  We felt it in Smithville.”

For brevity, an earthquake is caused by the sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust, typically due to fault slippage.  This energy is then released in the form of seismic waves, which then propagate through the Earth’s crust, causing the ground to shake, wrote Al Overview.  This readily explains the tremendous and lengthy-affected areas felt through the “shaking” descriptive mechanism.

Amy Puckett Corley of McMinnville and formerly of Smithville, wrote on Saturday, “Our house just shook!  Apparently, the epicenter of the quake was south of Maryville, near Greenback, Tennessee.”  She further said that she and the family’s cat felt the quake but husband, Mike, did not.  Continuing, she added that “glass in the house and the windows just rattled for about five (5) seconds.”   This same scenario seems to be the overall concluding and cumulative description of the morning’s unusual collaborative events.

This description seems to be the main precursor effects associated with the recent earthquake.  Brenda Gay recalled that her “The bed shook and it was a weird feeling.”  Alice Fancher Towery said, “Crazy!  It was close to Knoxville and my condominium shook.  There was a huge BOOM.  My cat jumped up in the air and then ran.”

The location of Saturday’s 4.1 earthquake was on the East Tennessee fault line, which runs from Chattanooga through Knoxville and into North Carolina.  The recent weekend earthquake was located near Knoxville, Tennessee.