A shallow magnitude earthquake shook parts of middle Georgia earlier Tuesday evening, less than half a day after tremors were felt in northwest Georgia in Chattooga County.

11Alive meteorologist Melissa Nord (EAS 2013) spoke with a Georgia Tech seismologist, who explained Northwest Georgia is the state's most active seismic region. It is located within the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone, which experiences frequent, small earthquakes. 

Zhigang Peng, professor of geophysics in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, recently co-authored a research study on the frequency of earthquakes in this Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone.

"We connected all of the data that has been recorded in that region over the past 15 years or so. And then we carefully relocated, trying to determine exactly where they're located. And after we did that, we found out that many of them occur in small kind of ligament, which is probably an indication that there are some small faults," Peng said. 

It's possible that Tuesday's earthquake in northwest Georgia was one of those small ligaments or faults, but Dr. Peng said he'd need to investigate further.