QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

21 km SW of Jal, New Mexico

· 8.2 km deep · released about 1,300 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Loving County 25 kmWinkler County 30 kmWard County 55 kmEctor County 76 kmAndrews County 76 kmReeves County 81 kmLea County 93 kmCrane County 100 kmEddy County 107 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
8.2 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Loving County, 25 km WSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 817 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,300 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,300 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.4× 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 31.9640, -103.3340. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Loving County, TX 25 km (16 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Loving County
Winkler County, TX 30 km (19 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Winkler County
Ward County, TX 55 km (34 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ward County
Ector County, TX 76 km (47 mi) W of here earthquakes near Ector County
Andrews County, TX 76 km (47 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Andrews County
Reeves County, TX 81 km (50 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Reeves County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 14 km NE of Jal, New Mexico
  2. 2.1 16 km NE of Jal, New Mexico
  3. 1.7 37 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  4. 2.0 25 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  5. 1.6 31 km NNW of Mentone, Texas
  6. 1.9 26 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  7. 1.6 21 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  8. 3.0 21 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  9. 2.3 21 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  10. 1.7 34 km SE of Malaga, New Mexico
  11. 1.8 13 km NNW of Mentone, Texas
  12. 1.8 24 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  13. 1.6 20 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  14. 2.1 19 km SSW of Jal, New Mexico
  15. 2.7 15 km NE of Jal, New Mexico

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 4.0 on 2021-07-19 — it released about 22 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.