QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

22 km NNW of Midland, Texas

· 8.7 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Martin County 21 kmMidland County 44 kmAndrews County 49 kmEctor County 53 kmDawson County 64 kmHoward County 67 kmGlasscock County 68 kmGaines County 77 kmBorden County 89 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 1.7 (ml)
Depth
8.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Martin County, 21 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 996 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 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 32.1910, -102.1340. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Martin County, TX 21 km (13 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Martin County
Midland County, TX 44 km (27 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Midland County
Andrews County, TX 49 km (31 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Andrews County
Ector County, TX 53 km (33 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Ector County
Dawson County, TX 64 km (40 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Dawson County
Howard County, TX 67 km (41 mi) W of here earthquakes near Howard County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.9 25 km W of Garden City, Texas
  2. 1.7 32 km WSW of Ackerly, Texas
  3. 1.5 32 km WSW of Ackerly, Texas
  4. 1.7 36 km NW of Stanton, Texas
  5. 1.5 21 km N of Stanton, Texas
  6. 1.5 21 km N of Stanton, Texas
  7. 1.5 36 km SSW of Los Ybanez, Texas
  8. 1.9 17 km NW of Stanton, Texas
  9. 1.5 37 km ENE of McKinney Acres, Texas
  10. 1.6 19 km NW of Stanton, Texas
  11. 1.5 31 km WSW of Ackerly, Texas
  12. 2.6 32 km WSW of Ackerly, Texas
  13. 2.2 32 km WSW of Ackerly, Texas
  14. 2.3 38 km ENE of McKinney Acres, Texas
  15. 1.5 33 km WSW of Ackerly, 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 180,000 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.