Small quake rattles region; no damage reported

DYERSBURG, Tenn.-- A light earthquake rattled parts of the Missouri Bootheel, western Tennessee and northeastern Arkansas Thursday morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the temblor had a magnitude of 4 and was centered 10 miles north-northwest of Dyersburg, near Ridgely, Tenn. The agency said the quake was about 15 1/2 kilometers below the surface.

Dyer County fire chief and emergency management agency director James Paul Medling said emergency agencies were flooded with telephone calls from anxious residents shortly after the 6:38 a.m. CDT event, but no one reported any damage.

"I was still in bed," Medling told The Associated Press. "I felt my house shake twice, my bed shook twice and I heard a big boom."

Medling said he went outside and the water was swirling in his dog's water bucket.

Some residents in the Caruthersville area also reported feeling the quake.

The area where the quake was felt is in the New Madrid fault zone -- a seismically active area that runs along the Mississippi River from New Madrid in the Missouri Bootheel to Marked Tree, Ark.

Scientists say a huge earthquake in 1811-1812 struck the area, causing the river to run backward for a time and creating Reelfoot Lake on the Tennessee-Kentucky border.

The Geological Survey also reported a very small quake in the region on Monday. The 1.6 magnitude temblor was centered five miles south of Manila, Ark., about 45 miles west-southwest of Dyersburg.