QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

4 km NE of Medford, Oklahoma

· 7.5 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Grant County 10 kmSumner County 48 kmKay County 50 kmHarper County 50 kmGarfield County 52 kmAlfalfa County 57 kmNoble County 66 kmCowley County 88 kmKingman County 88 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
7.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Grant County, 10 km SW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 53 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 5.9 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 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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 36.8423, -97.6993. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Grant County, OK 10 km (6 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Grant County
Sumner County, KS 48 km (30 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Kay County, OK 50 km (31 mi) W of here earthquakes near Kay County
Harper County, KS 50 km (31 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Garfield County, OK 52 km (32 mi) N of here earthquakes near Garfield County
Alfalfa County, OK 57 km (35 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Alfalfa County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 8 km NNE of Nash, Oklahoma
  2. 2.4 3 km ENE of Medford, Oklahoma

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 4.5 on 2022-01-31 — it released about 29,000 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.