QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.9ml

3 km N of Nordheim, Texas

· 4.5 km deep · released about 11 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Karnes County 24 kmDeWitt County 28 kmGoliad County 37 kmWilson County 52 kmGonzales County 58 kmBee County 61 kmVictoria County 65 kmGuadalupe County 77 kmLavaca 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 3.9 (ml)
Depth
4.5 km below the surface
Felt
28 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Karnes County, 24 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 452 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 28 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 710× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 500× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.9 about 11 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 22× 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 28.9530, -97.6110. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Karnes County, TX 24 km (15 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Karnes County
DeWitt County, TX 28 km (18 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near DeWitt County
Goliad County, TX 37 km (23 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Goliad County
Wilson County, TX 52 km (33 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Wilson County
Gonzales County, TX 58 km (36 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Gonzales County
Bee County, TX 61 km (38 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Bee County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 18 km SSW of Nixon, Texas
  2. 1.5 17 km S of Gonzales, Texas
  3. 1.6 1 km ESE of Falls City, Texas
  4. 1.6 7 km SSW of Falls City, Texas
  5. 2.0 11 km S of Smiley, Texas
  6. 1.6 12 km S of Smiley, Texas
  7. 1.8 11 km S of Smiley, Texas
  8. 1.6 10 km S of Smiley, Texas
  9. 1.9 14 km SSE of Smiley, Texas
  10. 1.9 14 km ENE of Falls City, Texas
  11. 1.8 13 km ENE of Falls City, Texas
  12. 1.5 7 km SW of Falls City, Texas
  13. 2.2 7 km SSW of Falls City, Texas
  14. 2.2 6 km SW of Falls City, Texas
  15. 1.6 7 km SSW of Falls City, 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 4.1 on 2023-09-14 — it released about 2 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.