QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

28 km ESE of Midland, Texas

· 7.8 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Midland County 18 kmGlasscock County 28 kmMartin County 52 kmUpton County 60 kmHoward County 61 kmReagan County 61 kmEctor County 68 kmSterling County 72 kmCrane County 80 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
7.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Midland County, 18 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1951 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 7.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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 31.8594, -101.8191. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Midland County, TX 18 km (11 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Midland County
Glasscock County, TX 28 km (17 mi) W of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Martin County, TX 52 km (32 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Martin County
Upton County, TX 60 km (37 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Upton County
Howard County, TX 61 km (38 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Howard County
Reagan County, TX 61 km (38 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Reagan County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 15 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  2. 1.8 29 km ESE of Midland, Texas
  3. 1.8 12 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  4. 2.4 12 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  5. 1.9 15 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  6. 2.1 26 km W of Garden City, Texas
  7. 2.2 14 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  8. 1.7 8 km SE of Midland, Texas
  9. 1.8 14 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  10. 1.5 12 km N of Midland, Texas
  11. 2.3 17 km N of Stanton, Texas
  12. 1.6 8 km SE of Midland, Texas
  13. 2.8 15 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  14. 2.7 14 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  15. 1.6 9 km SSE of Gardendale, Texas

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 4.0 on 2020-12-31 — it released about 4,000 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.