QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

4 km E of Bluff City, Kansas

· 6.9 km deep · released about 38 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Harper County 25 kmGrant County 33 kmSumner County 34 kmAlfalfa County 59 kmKingman County 60 kmKay County 67 kmSedgwick County 74 kmBarber County 78 kmGarfield County 78 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
6.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Harper County, 25 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3496 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 38 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 5.8 390,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 280,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 25× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 38 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 37.0808, -97.8232. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Harper County, KS 25 km (15 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Grant County, OK 33 km (20 mi) N of here earthquakes near Grant County
Sumner County, KS 34 km (21 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Alfalfa County, OK 59 km (37 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Alfalfa County
Kingman County, KS 60 km (37 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kingman County
Kay County, OK 67 km (42 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kay County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  2. 1.5 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  3. 1.7 5 km ESE of Manchester, Oklahoma
  4. 1.7 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  5. 2.4 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  6. 2.9 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  7. 1.5 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  8. 1.8 3 km SSE of Argonia, Kansas
  9. 1.6 3 km SSE of Argonia, Kansas
  10. 2.0 6 km ESE of Anthony, Kansas
  11. 3.3 2 km ENE of South Haven, Kansas
  12. 1.7 3 km SSE of Argonia, Kansas
  13. 3.1 10 km SSE of Spivey, Kansas
  14. 1.8 2 km SSE of Bluff City, Kansas
  15. 1.9 6 km ESE of Anthony, Kansas

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 4.0 on 2016-11-25 — it released about 790 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.