QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8ml

80 km ENE of Tonopah, Nevada

· 0.9 km deep · released about 480 lb of TNT

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10 km30 km60 km120 km N Nye County 36 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 2.8 (ml)
Depth
0.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Nye County, 36 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2157 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 480 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 32,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 22,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 480 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 38.2735, -116.3500. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Nye County, NV 36 km (22 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Nye County
Esmeralda County, NV 125 km (78 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Esmeralda County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.8 99 km S of Eureka, Nevada
  2. 2.3 97 km S of Eureka, Nevada
  3. 2.8 91 km WSW of Preston, Nevada
  4. 2.0 93 km NNW of Rachel, Nevada
  5. 2.0 73 km N of Rachel, Nevada
  6. 1.5 63 km NW of Rachel, Nevada
  7. 1.7 74 km NE of Tonopah, Nevada
  8. 2.0 46 km E of Tonopah, Nevada
  9. 1.8 91 km NNW of Rachel, Nevada
  10. 1.7 46 km NNW of Rachel, Nevada
  11. 2.1 69 km NNW of Rachel, Nevada
  12. 3.3 75 km NNW of Rachel, Nevada
  13. 1.9 44 km ENE of Tonopah, Nevada
  14. 1.5 97 km SE of Kingston, Nevada
  15. 2.5 43 km ENE of Tonopah, 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.2 on 2019-05-23 — it released about 130 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.