QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

12 km W of Caldwell, Kansas

· 7.3 km deep · released about 5.7 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Grant County 26 kmSumner County 33 kmHarper County 34 kmKay County 58 kmAlfalfa County 61 kmKingman County 69 kmGarfield County 71 kmSedgwick County 78 kmNoble County 84 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
7.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Grant County, 26 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3098 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 5.7 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,600,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.7 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 37.0177, -97.7420. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Grant County, OK 26 km (16 mi) N of here earthquakes near Grant County
Sumner County, KS 33 km (20 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Harper County, KS 34 km (21 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Kay County, OK 58 km (36 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kay County
Alfalfa County, OK 61 km (38 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Alfalfa County
Kingman County, KS 69 km (43 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kingman County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.7 5 km SSE of Pond Creek, Oklahoma
  2. 2.5 12 km SSE of Waldron, Kansas
  3. 4.1 8 km W of Deer Creek, Oklahoma
  4. 3.8 4 km ENE of Pond Creek, Oklahoma
  5. 2.5 2 km ENE of South Haven, Kansas
  6. 2.1 8 km ESE of Caldwell, Kansas
  7. 1.6 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  8. 2.5 10 km SSE of Waldron, Kansas
  9. 3.1 10 km SSE of Waldron, Kansas
  10. 1.8 11 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  11. 1.7 4 km NNW of Mayfield, Kansas
  12. 1.9 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  13. 2.7 Kansas
  14. 2.0 5 km SSE of Freeport, Kansas
  15. 2.6 5 km SSW of Bluff City, 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 5,200 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.