QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

9 km W of Bluff City, Kansas

· 7.6 km deep · released about 49 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Harper County 15 kmGrant County 36 kmSumner County 47 kmAlfalfa County 49 kmKingman County 55 kmBarber County 64 kmGarfield County 79 kmKay County 80 kmSedgwick County 82 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
7.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Harper County, 15 km NNW
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 49 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 5.8 310,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 220,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 19× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 49 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 37.0730, -97.9837. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Harper County, KS 15 km (9 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Grant County, OK 36 km (22 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Grant County
Sumner County, KS 47 km (29 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Alfalfa County, OK 49 km (30 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Alfalfa County
Kingman County, KS 55 km (34 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kingman County
Barber County, KS 64 km (40 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Barber County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.3 7 km NE of Attica, Kansas
  2. 1.6 2 km E of Argonia, Kansas
  3. 2.6 8 km E of Nescatunga, Oklahoma
  4. 2.0 7 km SE of Harper, Kansas
  5. 2.2 7 km SE of Harper, Kansas
  6. 1.7 12 km SSE of Milan, Kansas
  7. 2.1 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  8. 1.6 6 km NE of Milan, Kansas
  9. 1.6 6 km ESE of Harper, Kansas
  10. 3.4 8 km SE of Harper, Kansas
  11. 3.4 9 km ESE of Medford, Oklahoma
  12. 2.1 7 km NNE of Attica, Kansas
  13. 1.8 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  14. 2.1 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  15. 1.5 5 km SSE of Freeport, 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 620 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.