What's Shaking, Tennessee?

It seems that most of the state was shaking last night. While people who follow the arcane adventures of geologists and seismologists will likely not be surprised, a whole bunch of other folks got a bit of a shock when a 2.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Knoxville last night.

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A minor earthquake shook parts of eastern Tennessee, but there were no reports of damage or injuries, officials said.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 2.5, happened at 8:02 p.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.

The quake was 17 miles southwest of Knoxville, according to the earthquake center's Web site.

I've seen reports on this before, and the National Geographic Channel has featured this story a few times. There is an ancient, massive fault line that runs through the southern section of our country. It travels under Tennessee and right down through Mississippi. One geologist claims that the largest earthquake to ever hit North America happened along that fault line, but it was thousands of years before white men arrived here from Europe.

It's a sleepy fault line that only produces a serious quake very rarely, but when it does the results can be spectacular. Somebody probably needs to pack up the glassware in bubblewrap down at Graceland. If this fault line is getting active again, things could take a rather nasty turn very suddenly.