ATLANTA — People in the Southeast were woken up by a unusually strong earthquake early Wednesday morning.
>> On WSBTV.com: Early morning earthquake rattles Southeast
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake happened about 4:15 a.m. near Decatur, Tennessee. It had a magnitude of 4.4. A 3.3-magnitude aftershock followed happened about 15 minutes later. At least two other aftershocks were later reported.
There have been 4 earthquakes this morning. The M4.4 quake we felt and three aftershocks. The plotting is kind of jumbled because 3 of them happened in almost exactly the same location. pic.twitter.com/VevnFfWTRW
— Brad Nitz (@BradNitzWSB) December 12, 2018
Atlanta's WSB-TV received dozens of phone calls in the minutes following the quake.
The earthquake happened along the New Madrid Fault Line, which is along the Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi state lines.
The earthquake was the second strongest on record in east Tennessee, according to the USGS. The strongest was a magnitude 4.7 near Maryville in 1973.
Confirmed: A Magnitude 4.4 #earthquake - 11km NNE of Decatur, Tennessee.
— Brad Nitz (@BradNitzWSB) December 12, 2018
We felt this in Atlanta. https://t.co/9QpWLw4Ci9
There have been several small earthquakes in northwest Georgia over the past few years, including a 1.9-magnitude quake near Villanow, in Walker County, in August.
A 2.7-magnitude quake was reported in Catoosa County, near Fort Oglethorpe, in January, and a 2.3 hit Trion, in Chattooga County, in November 2017. In July 2017, a 2.2-magnitude quake was registered just north of LaFayette in Walker County.
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