QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

3 km WNW of Mill Creek, Illinois

· 8.8 km deep · released about 7.3 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Union County 15 kmAlexander County 20 kmPulaski County 21 kmCape Girardeau County 36 kmJohnson County 37 kmBallard County 42 kmScott County 43 kmJackson County 49 kmWilliamson County 52 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 (md)
Depth
8.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Union County, 15 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 865 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 7.3 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 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.3 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 37.3567, -89.2833. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Union County, IL 15 km (9 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Union County
Alexander County, IL 20 km (12 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Alexander County
Pulaski County, IL 21 km (13 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Pulaski County
Cape Girardeau County, MO 36 km (22 mi) E of here earthquakes near Cape Girardeau County
Johnson County, IL 37 km (23 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Johnson County
Ballard County, KY 42 km (26 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Ballard County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 6 km WNW of Cape Girardeau, Missouri
  2. 1.6 11 km WNW of Jonesboro, Illinois
  3. 2.0 3 km NE of Ullin, Illinois
  4. 2.4 2 km NNE of Wilson City, Missouri

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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.