A small earthquake hit the northwest corner of Georgia Sunday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The 2.7 magnitude quake was reported in Catoosa County, near Fort Oglethorpe, which is about 110 miles northwest of Atlanta.
It was reported shortly before 5 a.m.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said at least one person experienced some shaking.
“I had one person tweet me that they felt it, but that was about it,” he said. “Anything less than 3.0 is a pretty weak earthquake, and not everyone will feel it.”
Each level of earthquake increases by a factor of 10, Monahan said, so a 4.0 magnitude earthquake is actually 10 times stronger than a 3.0, and 5.0 is 100 times stronger than a 3.0.
The area about 30 miles away in Trion felt a similar quake in early November 2017, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
A magnitude 2.5 earthquake struck an area about 100 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta in April 2017 and a 2.5 magnitude quake hit in Augusta later in the month. A stronger earthquake of 3.2 magnitude hit Augusta in June last year.
The apparent increase of reported earthquakes isn’t a sign of anything abnormal, officials say. Instead, the reports are a reflection of better equipment for measuring seismic activity.
The National Earthquake Information Center now locates about 20,000 earthquakes each year, or approximately 55 per day. As a result of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in natural disasters, the public now learns about earthquakes more quickly than ever before.
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