QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

8 km SE of Midland, Texas

· 8.9 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Midland County 14 kmMartin County 42 kmGlasscock County 48 kmEctor County 50 kmUpton County 65 kmHoward County 69 kmAndrews County 72 kmCrane County 72 kmReagan County 79 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
8.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Midland County, 14 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 737 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 31.9350, -102.0240. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Midland County, TX 14 km (8 mi) N of here earthquakes near Midland County
Martin County, TX 42 km (26 mi) S of here earthquakes near Martin County
Glasscock County, TX 48 km (30 mi) W of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Ector County, TX 50 km (31 mi) E of here earthquakes near Ector County
Upton County, TX 65 km (40 mi) N of here earthquakes near Upton County
Howard County, TX 69 km (43 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Howard County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 17 km NNW of Stanton, Texas
  2. 1.9 western Texas
  3. 3.2 28 km SW of Garden City, Texas
  4. 1.9 13 km NNE of Midland, Texas
  5. 2.0 western Texas
  6. 2.5 western Texas
  7. 2.5 18 km N of Stanton, Texas
  8. 1.5 20 km N of Stanton, Texas
  9. 1.6 11 km WNW of Stanton, Texas
  10. 1.5 15 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  11. 1.5 16 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  12. 1.8 8 km SE of Gardendale, Texas
  13. 2.2 7 km SE of Gardendale, Texas
  14. 2.0 39 km ENE of McKinney Acres, Texas
  15. 1.6 9 km ESE of Midland, 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 5.2 on 2022-12-16 — it released about 130,000 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.