QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

26 km SSE of Midland, Texas

· 7.6 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Midland County 7 kmGlasscock County 40 kmUpton County 50 kmMartin County 58 kmEctor County 58 kmReagan County 61 kmCrane County 66 kmHoward County 74 kmSterling County 83 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
7.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Midland County, 7 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 522 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 7.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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 31.7920, -101.9370. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Midland County, TX 7 km (4 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Midland County
Glasscock County, TX 40 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Upton County, TX 50 km (31 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Upton County
Martin County, TX 58 km (36 mi) S of here earthquakes near Martin County
Ector County, TX 58 km (36 mi) E of here earthquakes near Ector County
Reagan County, TX 61 km (38 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Reagan County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 14 km ESE of Stanton, Texas
  2. 1.7 15 km NW of Midland, Texas
  3. 1.6 17 km NW of Midland, Texas
  4. 1.6 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  5. 1.5 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  6. 1.6 16 km NW of Midland, Texas
  7. 1.6 14 km ESE of Stanton, Texas
  8. 1.5 17 km NW of Midland, Texas
  9. 2.0 17 km NW of Midland, Texas
  10. 1.5 14 km ESE of Stanton, Texas
  11. 1.5 14 km ESE of Stanton, Texas
  12. 1.5 14 km ESE of Stanton, Texas
  13. 1.5 14 km SSE of Stanton, Texas
  14. 1.6 5 km ENE of Gardendale, Texas
  15. 1.6 6 km ENE of Gardendale, 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 250,000 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.