GREENSBORO, North Carolina — A 2.6 magnitude earthquake hit Archdale early Tuesday waking many from their beds and leaving even more people with questions.
Our sources to answer your quake questions, WFMY News 2 Chief Meteorologist Tim Buckley - and Jonathan Tytell, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey.
The first question we want to address is from Bonita Leasure.
"What are the chances we'll get another one anytime soon?"
"There's really no way to know. The chance of another earthquake happening in North Carolina tomorrow are the same chances as a 100 years from now basically," Tytell said.
Tytell says it's hard to pinpoint because of the magnitude of this earthquake.
It was just too minor. He says
He explained that were the earthquake bigger, their tools could predict within years the chances of another major earthquake happening.But even that wouldn't be exact.
Next Christopher Applegate writes, " Have we gotten earthquakes in the Piedmont before?"
Short answer, yes!
Tim says the the last one was in 2015 in Surry County. North Carolina earthquakes in general are pretty rare. We don't have active fault zones here.
The risk is low in the Piedmont and grows as you head west, but they have happened.
Our meteorologists put together a map that dates back to 1976.
There have been 51 earthquakes more powerful than a 2.5 magnitude.... mostly in the western part of our state.
In fact there was another earthquake Tuesday near Cullowhee. It was also a 2.6 magnitude quake. Tytell says it's too far from the one in the Triad to be related.
News 2 reached out to Emergency Management officials about preparation for these kinds of events. Rest assured although Tuesday's event was minor, if it were major, they say they would be ready to respond.