QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

17 km ENE of Smiley, Texas

· 8.9 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Gonzales County 16 kmDeWitt County 29 kmLavaca County 53 kmGuadalupe County 55 kmCaldwell County 59 kmKarnes County 59 kmWilson County 62 kmGoliad County 74 kmVictoria County 76 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
8.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Gonzales County, 16 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 320 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 5.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 29.3230, -97.4680. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Gonzales County, TX 16 km (10 mi) S of here earthquakes near Gonzales County
DeWitt County, TX 29 km (18 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near DeWitt County
Lavaca County, TX 53 km (33 mi) W of here earthquakes near Lavaca County
Guadalupe County, TX 55 km (34 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Guadalupe County
Caldwell County, TX 59 km (36 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Caldwell County
Karnes County, TX 59 km (37 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Karnes County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 21 km SSW of Nixon, Texas
  2. 1.8 17 km ENE of Smiley, Texas
  3. 1.7 15 km ENE of Smiley, Texas
  4. 1.9 17 km ENE of Smiley, Texas
  5. 3.0 18 km S of Gonzales, Texas
  6. 2.0 17 km E of Smiley, Texas
  7. 2.1 14 km E of Smiley, Texas
  8. 1.8 18 km ENE of Smiley, Texas
  9. 1.8 18 km ENE of Smiley, Texas
  10. 2.2 18 km ENE of Smiley, Texas
  11. 2.3 18 km ENE of Smiley, Texas
  12. 1.7 16 km ENE of Smiley, 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 7,900 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.