Macon County residents had their quiet Sunday morning shaken when an 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck near Sparta, 230 miles away.
The quake, which hit shortly after 8 a.m. on Aug. 9, shook houses and rattled windows throughout Macon County. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit North Carolina since 1916.
No damage was reported locally, according to Warren Cabe, director of Macon County emergency services.
“We actually saw a lot of communication about it on social media, but inquiries through 911 were minimal,” he said. “There have been smaller tremors felt here before. Our region actually sees a fairly significant amount of smaller events, but for the most part the East Coast is not subject to earthquakes that result in significant damage.”
Alex Glover, a geologist who lives in Spruce Pine, said his grandfather clock started chiming and the water in his 200-gallon horse trough was sloshing back and forth.
The quake was close to the Brevard Fault, which runs from Cartersville, Georgia north into Virginia.
Glover said the temblor released energy equivalent to 274 tons of TNT exploding.
“It so happens that’s about the amount of energy that went off in the Lebanon blast last week,” he said.
At about two miles down, it was a shallow quake. Most earthquakes occur 10-12 miles beneath the surface, Glover said. The shallowness of the quake contributed to the widespread effect.
“The more shallow, the more you feel that energy released,” Glover said.
Several aftershocks were recorded in the Sparta area in the wake of the quake.
Mild earthquakes are fairly common in Western North Carolina, but quakes of this magnitude are very rare.
“They will continue to happen, but I encourage people not to go out and buy earthquake insurance,” Glover said.