QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

2 km E of Argonia, Kansas

· 8.6 km deep · released about 6.8 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sumner County 21 kmHarper County 31 kmKingman County 49 kmSedgwick County 53 kmGrant County 53 kmKay County 72 kmAlfalfa County 79 kmCowley County 79 kmReno 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
8.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sumner County, 21 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3467 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 6.8 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.8 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 37.2610, -97.7338. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sumner County, KS 21 km (13 mi) W of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Harper County, KS 31 km (19 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Kingman County, KS 49 km (30 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Kingman County
Sedgwick County, KS 53 km (33 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Sedgwick County
Grant County, OK 53 km (33 mi) N of here earthquakes near Grant County
Kay County, OK 72 km (45 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Kay County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 6 km ESE of Mayfield, Kansas
  2. 2.9 10 km W of Belle Plaine, Kansas
  3. 2.3 9 km ESE of Clearwater, Kansas
  4. 2.5 2 km ENE of South Haven, Kansas
  5. 2.1 8 km ESE of Caldwell, Kansas
  6. 1.6 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  7. 1.8 11 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  8. 1.7 4 km NNW of Mayfield, Kansas
  9. 1.9 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  10. 2.7 Kansas
  11. 2.0 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  12. 2.6 5 km SSW of Bluff City, Kansas
  13. 1.5 8 km SW of Bluff City, Kansas
  14. 2.0 7 km ENE of Attica, Kansas
  15. 1.5 5 km SE 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 4,400 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.