QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

8 km NW of Randleman, North Carolina

· 2.3 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Randolph County 18 kmGuilford County 26 kmDavidson County 30 kmForsyth County 45 kmAlamance County 48 kmRockingham County 59 kmMontgomery County 59 kmChatham County 59 kmDavie County 60 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 1.7 (md)
Depth
2.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Randolph County, 18 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 86 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 930,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 83× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 35.8608, -79.8813. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Randolph County, NC 18 km (11 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Randolph County
Guilford County, NC 26 km (16 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Guilford County
Davidson County, NC 30 km (19 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Davidson County
Forsyth County, NC 45 km (28 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Forsyth County
Alamance County, NC 48 km (30 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Alamance County
Rockingham County, NC 59 km (36 mi) S of here earthquakes near Rockingham County

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

Aftershocks so far

1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 2.0 7 km WNW of Randleman, 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.

On USGS

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