QuakeIndex

explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

50 km S of Kingston, Nevada

· 4.9 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Nye County 105 kmMineral County 115 kmEsmeralda County 118 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
4.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Nye County, 105 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2733 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.4 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 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 38.7581, -117.1239. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Nye County, NV 105 km (66 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Nye County
Mineral County, NV 115 km (72 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Mineral County
Esmeralda County, NV 118 km (73 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Esmeralda County
Churchill County, NV 131 km (81 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Churchill County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 55 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  2. 1.6 60 km N of Tonopah, Nevada
  3. 1.9 63 km N of Tonopah, Nevada
  4. 1.5 38 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  5. 1.5 55 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  6. 1.6 55 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  7. 1.5 56 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  8. 1.8 61 km ESE of Gabbs, Nevada
  9. 1.8 55 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  10. 1.5 63 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  11. 2.0 54 km NNW of Tonopah, Nevada
  12. 3.2 61 km N of Tonopah, Nevada
  13. 2.6 60 km SSW of Kingston, Nevada
  14. 1.7 58 km S of Kingston, Nevada
  15. 1.5 60 km SSW of Kingston, Nevada

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.