QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6ml

14 km ENE of Gardendale, Texas

· 9.8 km deep · released about 3.8 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Midland County 36 kmEctor County 36 kmMartin County 38 kmAndrews County 47 kmGlasscock County 71 kmCrane County 75 kmHoward County 80 kmDawson County 80 kmUpton County 81 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 3.6 (ml)
Depth
9.8 km below the surface
Felt
100 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Midland County, 36 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1380 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 100 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.9× more

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 32.0636, -102.2382. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Midland County, TX 36 km (22 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Midland County
Ector County, TX 36 km (22 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Ector County
Martin County, TX 38 km (23 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Martin County
Andrews County, TX 47 km (29 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Andrews County
Glasscock County, TX 71 km (44 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Crane County, TX 75 km (47 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Crane 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. 3.2 14 km ENE of Gardendale, Texas
  2. 1.5 33 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  3. 1.8 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  4. 1.7 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  5. 1.6 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  6. 1.8 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  7. 2.3 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  8. 1.9 33 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  9. 1.5 33 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  10. 1.6 37 km ENE of McKinney Acres, Texas
  11. 1.9 16 km SSE of Stanton, Texas
  12. 2.1 10 km NE of Odessa, Texas
  13. 1.5 10 km NE of Odessa, Texas
  14. 1.9 10 km NNE of Odessa, Texas
  15. 1.5 10 km NNE of Odessa, 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 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.