QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

13 km SSW of Big Spring, Texas

· 6.8 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Howard County 20 kmGlasscock County 30 kmMartin County 44 kmSterling County 57 kmMidland County 57 kmMitchell County 60 kmBorden County 67 kmDawson County 77 kmReagan County 85 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
6.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Howard County, 20 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 786 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 32.1410, -101.5340. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Howard County, TX 20 km (13 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Howard County
Glasscock County, TX 30 km (19 mi) N of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Martin County, TX 44 km (28 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Martin County
Sterling County, TX 57 km (35 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Sterling County
Midland County, TX 57 km (36 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Midland County
Mitchell County, TX 60 km (37 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Mitchell County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 24 km SSW of Westbrook, Texas
  2. 2.1 23 km WSW of Ackerly, Texas
  3. 2.3 14 km E of Coahoma, Texas
  4. 1.9 14 km SSE of Stanton, Texas
  5. 1.6 21 km WNW of Stanton, Texas
  6. 2.1 21 km WNW of Stanton, Texas
  7. 2.9 21 km WNW of Stanton, Texas
  8. 1.7 20 km WNW of Stanton, Texas
  9. 2.5 21 km WNW of Stanton, Texas
  10. 1.9 22 km W of Garden City, Texas
  11. 2.0 21 km WNW of Stanton, Texas
  12. 1.5 12 km SSW of Big Spring, Texas
  13. 2.3 26 km W of Garden City, Texas
  14. 1.8 14 km SW of Westbrook, Texas
  15. 1.7 15 km E of Coahoma, 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 4.6 on 2021-12-28 — it released about 32,000 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.