QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

7 km ESE of Bluff City, Kansas

· 4.9 km deep · released about 12 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Harper County 29 kmGrant County 29 kmSumner County 34 kmAlfalfa County 59 kmKay County 64 kmKingman County 64 kmGarfield County 75 kmSedgwick County 76 kmBarber County 81 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
4.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Harper County, 29 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3383 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 12 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 80× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 12 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 37.0492, -97.7955. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Harper County, KS 29 km (18 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Grant County, OK 29 km (18 mi) N of here earthquakes near Grant County
Sumner County, KS 34 km (21 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Alfalfa County, OK 59 km (37 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Alfalfa County
Kay County, OK 64 km (39 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kay County
Kingman County, KS 64 km (40 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

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

  1. 2.3 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  2. 1.7 12 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  3. 1.7 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  4. 2.9 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  5. 1.6 11 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  6. 1.9 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  7. 2.0 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  8. 2.4 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  9. 1.5 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  10. 3.3 10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  11. 1.5 7 km SSE of Anthony, Kansas
  12. 1.7 7 km N of Argonia, Kansas
  13. 1.5 10 km WNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  14. 2.7 10 km WNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  15. 1.8 7 km N of Argonia, 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 3,600 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.