QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

15 km WNW of Big Spring, Texas

· 7.2 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Howard County 18 kmMartin County 32 kmBorden County 50 kmGlasscock County 51 kmDawson County 56 kmMitchell County 66 kmMidland County 66 kmSterling County 76 kmScurry County 82 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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
7.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Howard County, 18 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1717 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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 32.3172, -101.6262. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Howard County, TX 18 km (11 mi) W of here earthquakes near Howard County
Martin County, TX 32 km (20 mi) E of here earthquakes near Martin County
Borden County, TX 50 km (31 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Borden County
Glasscock County, TX 51 km (32 mi) N of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Dawson County, TX 56 km (35 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Dawson County
Mitchell County, TX 66 km (41 mi) W of here earthquakes near Mitchell County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 16 km SSE of Stanton, Texas
  2. 1.8 17 km NW of Stanton, Texas
  3. 1.5 38 km ENE of McKinney Acres, Texas
  4. 1.9 18 km SSE of Ackerly, Texas
  5. 1.5 33 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  6. 1.9 33 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  7. 1.5 33 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  8. 1.6 37 km ENE of McKinney Acres, Texas
  9. 1.9 16 km SSE of Stanton, Texas
  10. 2.3 34 km WSW of Ackerly, Texas
  11. 2.0 16 km SSE of Ackerly, Texas
  12. 2.1 17 km SSE of Ackerly, Texas
  13. 3.0 16 km SSE of Ackerly, Texas
  14. 2.3 38 km SSW of Los Ybanez, Texas
  15. 2.2 37 km SSW of Los Ybanez, 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 45 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.