QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

10 km SSW of Bluff City, Kansas

· 6.5 km deep · released about 16 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Grant County 24 kmHarper County 27 kmSumner County 46 kmAlfalfa County 47 kmKingman County 67 kmGarfield County 68 kmKay County 70 kmBarber County 74 kmSedgwick County 87 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
6.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Grant County, 24 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3306 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 16 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 930,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 660,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 59× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 16 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 36.9822, -97.9067. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Grant County, OK 24 km (15 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Grant County
Harper County, KS 27 km (17 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Sumner County, KS 46 km (29 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Alfalfa County, OK 47 km (29 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Alfalfa County
Kingman County, KS 67 km (42 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kingman County
Garfield County, OK 68 km (42 mi) N of here earthquakes near Garfield County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 8 km W of Deer Creek, Oklahoma
  2. 2.3 11 km N of Deer Creek, Oklahoma
  3. 2.4 9 km SSW of Bluff City, Kansas
  4. 1.7 7 km N of Argonia, Kansas
  5. 1.6 2 km W of Freeport, Kansas
  6. 2.5 10 km S of Spivey, Kansas
  7. 2.8 10 km S of Spivey, Kansas
  8. 3.2 9 km S of Spivey, Kansas
  9. 1.8 7 km N of Argonia, Kansas
  10. 1.7 5 km E of Harper, Kansas
  11. 2.1 2 km W of Freeport, Kansas
  12. 2.7 2 km W of Freeport, Kansas
  13. 2.6 5 km ESE of Harper, Kansas
  14. 2.5 6 km NNE of Wakita, Oklahoma
  15. 1.7 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 2,600 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.