How common are earthquakes across Kentucky?

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Late last night, a 4.4 magnitude earthquake shook southern Nevada, including the Las Vegas metro area. This comes less than a week after Los Angeles experienced an earthquake of the same magnitude. With both cities being areas where travelers visit, it raised curiosity about the chances of an earthquake happening in Kentucky.

Earth itself is made up of layers floating on plates. Think of these plates as puzzle pieces. As these plates float and move around, they collide or grind along each other, causing an earthquake.

Some plates move around more than others, causing frequent earthquakes in certain areas, especially on the West Coast into portions of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.

An area is known as the New Madrid Fault and Wabash Valley Fault, which runs along the Mississippi River through Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. While most of the quakes in this region tend to be minor, that doesn’t mean Kentucky cannot experience more moderate earthquakes that could cause damage.

According to the University of Kentucky, the largest earthquake to occur in Kentucky was in 1980, ranking at 5.2 on the Richter scale. This earthquake caused over $3 million in damage.

The earthquake earlier this year, which affected portions of New Jersey and New York City, was detected on a seismograph, a device measuring shaking within the earth, at Mammoth Cave National Park. According to the USGS, this earthquake was rated a 4.8 magnitude earthquake causing travel disruptions at many area airports.

While earthquakes are not overly common in Kentucky, the possibility of feeling earth tremors is not excluded.

Earthquakes cannot be predicted; however, a correlation of strong earthquakes happening around the globe has led to other earthquakes happening. In other words, if one puzzle piece moves, the rest of the puzzle will be impacted.