North Alabama area has 4th earthquake of the year

The star marks the location where an earthquake was detected on Thursday. (USGS map)

A small earthquake in north Alabama was detected Thursday in north Alabama, the latest in a series of minor quakes across the state this year.

It's the 18th earthquake that's been detected in the state in 2017, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey.

Thursday's quake was detected at 12:57 p.m. near Trinity outside of Decatur in north central Alabama. It's also the fourth quake that's been detected in that area this year.

The latest quake was a 2.1 magnitude about 16.7 miles west southwest of Decatur in eastern Lawrence County. The quake was 3.1 miles below the earth's surface.

The four quakes in Trinity were all between 2.1 and 2.7 magnitude.

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