QuakeIndex

quarry blast · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

16 km SW of Primm, NV

· 0.5 km deep · released about 43 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Clark County 90 kmSan Bernardino County 95 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 2.1 (ml)
Depth
0.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Clark County, 90 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 40 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

USGS catalogues this as quarry blast, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log10E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

Where

Epicentre 35.5180, -115.5192. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Clark County, NV 90 km (56 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Clark County
San Bernardino County, CA 95 km (59 mi) NE of here earthquakes near San Bernardino County

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

36 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 1.7 14 km S of Enterprise, Nevada
  2. 1.6 31 km S of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  3. 1.6 45 km SSE of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  4. 1.5 24 km ENE of Kelso, CA
  5. 1.5 18 km E of Goodsprings, Nevada
  6. 1.6 36 km SSE of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  7. 2.0 32 km SSE of Goodsprings, Nevada
  8. 2.0 27 km E of Goodsprings, Nevada
  9. 1.5 44 km S of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  10. 1.6 42 km S of Goodsprings, Nevada
  11. 1.6 35 km S of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  12. 2.6 20 km SW of Primm, NV
  13. 1.5 13 km S of Primm, NV
  14. 1.8 32 km SW of Sandy Valley, Nevada
  15. 1.8 2 km NNE of Goodsprings, Nevada

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.5 on 2018-07-05 — it released about 4,000 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.