The seismic zone in southeastern Tennessee is at the confluence of major crustal features, which have been interpreted largely from potential data, and their relation to seismicity could help us understand why major earthquakes sometimes occur in the eastern United States. In this paper we solve for the previously unknown velocity structure of the upper crust by an inversion of travel time residuals from relocated earthquakes. The gravity anomalies are included by using a linear relation between average anomalous density and average anomalous velocity. The velocity model demonstrates that the seismicity is concentrated in areas of average to below average velocity and does not appear to be associated with one of the previously identified major crustal features. The high-velocity zones mark areas that are generally lacking in seismicity. The association of earthquake hypocenters with regions of low-velocity crustal rocks is consistent with other intraplate seismic zones, and this association supports the conjecture that intraplate earthquakes occur in crust that may have been weakened. The velocity anomalies at midcrustal depths do not support the New York-Allabama (NY-AL) lineament as a linear feature extending through southeastern Tennessee and parallel to contours in gravity anomalies as originally proposed. A continuation of the (NY-AL) lineament to the southwest requires either a 15 degree southwestward change in direction or a displacement to be consistent with the velocity anomalies. The seismically active areas in southeastern Tennessee do not appear to be constrained by the major crustal features, but instead, the seismicity is characterized by the distribution of hypocenters and their association with low-velocity regions at midcrustal depths. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996