QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

2 km NE of Caldwell, Kansas

· 5.5 km deep · released about 6.2 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sumner County 23 kmGrant County 34 kmHarper County 45 kmKay County 47 kmCowley County 70 kmSedgwick County 71 kmAlfalfa County 74 kmKingman County 75 kmGarfield County 76 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
5.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sumner County, 23 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3104 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 6.2 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 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 6.2 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 37.0470, -97.5880. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sumner County, KS 23 km (14 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Grant County, OK 34 km (21 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Grant County
Harper County, KS 45 km (28 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Kay County, OK 47 km (29 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kay County
Cowley County, KS 70 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Cowley County
Sedgwick County, KS 71 km (44 mi) S of here earthquakes near Sedgwick County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.4 6 km SSE of Harper, Kansas
  2. 2.8 7 km SE of Harper, Kansas
  3. 2.5 4 km SW of Hunnewell, Kansas
  4. 2.0 7 km SE of Harper, Kansas
  5. 1.9 7 km SE of Harper, Kansas
  6. 2.2 7 km SE of Harper, Kansas
  7. 1.5 4 km ESE of Caldwell, Kansas
  8. 1.7 9 km W of Bluff City, Kansas
  9. 2.8 8 km SSE of Milton, Kansas
  10. 2.4 8 km NNE of Nardin, Oklahoma
  11. 3.4 6 km NE of Hunter, Oklahoma
  12. 1.8 9 km W of Bluff City, Kansas
  13. 3.2 5 km NE of Hunter, Oklahoma
  14. 1.6 9 km W of Bluff City, Kansas
  15. 2.2 11 km SSE of Milan, 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 4.1 on 2017-03-29 — it released about 6,900 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.