QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

36 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico

· 7.6 km deep · released about 1,900 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Loving County 29 kmWinkler County 69 kmEddy County 69 kmReeves County 85 kmWard County 85 kmLea County 86 kmCulberson County 102 kmAndrews County 106 kmEctor County 114 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
7.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Loving County, 29 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 372 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 1,900 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× 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 32.0690, -103.7280. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Loving County, TX 29 km (18 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Loving County
Winkler County, TX 69 km (43 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Winkler County
Eddy County, NM 69 km (43 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Eddy County
Reeves County, TX 85 km (53 mi) N of here earthquakes near Reeves County
Ward County, TX 85 km (53 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Ward County
Lea County, NM 86 km (53 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Lea 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. 1.5 35 km SE of Malaga, New Mexico
  2. 1.5 34 km SE of Malaga, New Mexico
  3. 2.3 34 km SE of Malaga, New Mexico
  4. 2.0 33 km SE of Malaga, New Mexico
  5. 1.5 28 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  6. 1.5 36 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  7. 3.1 18 km NNW of Jal, New Mexico
  8. 1.6 37 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  9. 1.5 36 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  10. 1.8 36 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  11. 3.5 36 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  12. 2.3 37 km ESE of Malaga, 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 5.0 on 2020-03-26 — it released about 500 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.