QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.5md

9 km NE of Flat Lick, Kentucky

· 20 km deep · released about 160 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Knox County 14 kmBell County 17 kmClay County 31 kmLeslie County 35 kmHarlan County 42 kmWhitley County 42 kmClaiborne County 43 kmLaurel County 45 kmLee County 54 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 2.5 (md)
Depth
20 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Knox County, 14 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 337 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 160 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 95,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 68,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 160 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 36.8852, -83.6948. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Knox County, KY 14 km (9 mi) E of here earthquakes near Knox County
Bell County, KY 17 km (11 mi) N of here earthquakes near Bell County
Clay County, KY 31 km (19 mi) S of here earthquakes near Clay County
Leslie County, KY 35 km (22 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Leslie County
Harlan County, KY 42 km (26 mi) W of here earthquakes near Harlan County
Whitley County, KY 42 km (26 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Whitley 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. 2.1 5 km ESE of Pineville, Kentucky
  2. 2.6 11 km SW of Middlesboro, Kentucky

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.