QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8md

9 km SSE of West Jefferson, North Carolina

· 3.8 km deep · released about 14 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ashe County 14 kmWatauga County 23 kmWilkes County 30 kmAlleghany County 36 kmJohnson County 38 kmCaldwell County 39 kmGrayson County 44 kmAvery County 49 kmAlexander County 51 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 (md)
Depth
3.8 km below the surface
Felt
34 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Ashe County, 14 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1029 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 34 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 14 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 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 790,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 70× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 14 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 36.3188, -81.4702. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ashe County, NC 14 km (9 mi) S of here earthquakes near Ashe County
Watauga County, NC 23 km (15 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Watauga County
Wilkes County, NC 30 km (19 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Wilkes County
Alleghany County, NC 36 km (22 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Alleghany County
Johnson County, TN 38 km (24 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Johnson County
Caldwell County, NC 39 km (24 mi) N of here earthquakes near Caldwell County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 3 km WNW of Thurmond, North Carolina
  2. 2.2 9 km ESE of Independence, Virginia
  3. 2.2 7 km SSE of Sparta, North Carolina
  4. 2.2 16 km E of Jefferson, North Carolina
  5. 2.0 8 km S of Sparta, North Carolina
  6. 2.2 7 km SSE of Sparta, North Carolina
  7. 2.2 13 km NNW of Cedar Rock, North Carolina
  8. 2.2 6 km SSE of Sparta, North Carolina
  9. 2.1 1 km ESE of Sparta, North Carolina
  10. 2.3 5 km SE of Sparta, North Carolina
  11. 2.3 2 km E of Sparta, North Carolina

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 5.1 on 2020-08-09 — it released about 99,000 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.