Small earthquake shook Mississippi’s capital on Thanksgiving. Could the Coast also shake?
A magnitude 2.5 earthquake in the Jackson area Thursday morning came hours before people sat down to turkey dinner and brought speculation if earthquakes ever hit in South Mississippi.
The Thanksgiving earthquake was considered minor and no damage was reported.
United States Geological Survey reported the earthquake began at 1:48 a.m. It was 12 kilometers, or 7.5 miles, from Canton, which is northeast of Jackson. The depth was 5 kilometers.
The quake was centered on the north side of the of the Ross Barnett Reservoir, the Clarion Ledger reports.
Small earthquakes also were reported on Thanksgiving in Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee.
The United States Geological Survey puts Mississippi in an area less likely to experience an earthquake, but they do occur.
Here are some of the most notable:
▪ A magnitude 2.9 quake was reported 49 years ago, six miles from Saucier. It hit Sept. 9, 1975 and like the Thanksgiving Day shake, was 5 kilometers deep.
▪ A rare seafloor earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico occurred June 4, 2023 about 130 miles southeast of Gulfport. The 3.3-magnitude quake happened around 11:15 p.m. along the continental shelf, U.S. Geological Survey data shows.
▪ The earliest earthquake with a Mississippi epicenter was on Sept. 11, 1853, and Mississippi Encyclopedia reports it “shook houses and alarmed inhabitants of Biloxi.”
▪ The most recent was a magnitude 2.1 quake near Collins, southeast of Jackson, on Jan. 20, 2021.
▪ The strongest earthquake in Mississippi came on Dec. 16, 1931 in the Batesville-Charleston area, south of Memphis. It was estimated to be a magnitude 4.7 and was felt in northern Mississippi and parts of Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.
▪ Quitman, a town south of Meridian, has had five earthquakes since 1931.
▪ Two earthquakes were felt just over the border in Alabama. On May 4, 1977, a magnitude 3.6 quake struck 13 miles from Butler. A 3.7 magnitude quake hit July 16, 1993, 18 miles from Waynesboro.
▪ Flomaton, Alabama, northeast of Mobile, had three quakes within 10 miles: A category 3.7 on Oct. 26, 1997; a category 3.8 on Sept. 3, 2020; a category 4.8 on Oct. 24, 1997.
▪ Showing that an earthquake can occur along the northern Gulf Coast, a magnitude 3.5 quake hit near Dauphin Island, Alabama, on Feb. 18, 2011. More than 154 people reported they felt the shake.
