LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — At 10:18am on October 18, people across the country participated in the world's largest earthquake drill, called the "ShakeOut". The event served as a way to teach communities what to do in the event of an earthquake.
While small earthquakes may be fairly common in Kentucky, damaging earthquakes don't happen very often. The majority of the state is only expected to have 4-10 major earthquakes every 10,000 years. A major earthquake is a magnitude 7.0 or above.
At the epicenter of the New Madrid Fault, that number jumps to over 250 damaging earthquakes in the same time frame.
RELATED | On shaky ground: The New Madrid Fault
The New Madrid Seismic Zone covers portions of Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, and Mississippi. The sliding of rocks against one another at the fault is what causes these earthquakes to happen.
How often do these strong earthquakes occur?
The strongest earthquake on record in Kentucky was a Magnitude 5.2 in Sharpsburg, KY on July 27, 1980. The most recent one - a 2.1 - occurred on October 8, 2018 in Pineville.
The U.S. Geological Survey says that the best move in the event of an earthquake is to "drop, cover, and hold on."
►Contact meteorologist Kaitlynn Fish at kfish@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@KaitlynnFish), Facebook and Instagram.