QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

20 km NW of Stanton, Texas

· 6.9 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Martin County 5 kmHoward County 46 kmMidland County 51 kmDawson County 52 kmGlasscock County 59 kmAndrews County 67 kmBorden County 69 kmEctor County 73 kmGaines County 84 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
6.9 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Martin County, 5 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 269 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 32.2720, -101.9300. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Martin County, TX 5 km (3 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Martin County
Howard County, TX 46 km (29 mi) W of here earthquakes near Howard County
Midland County, TX 51 km (32 mi) N of here earthquakes near Midland County
Dawson County, TX 52 km (33 mi) S of here earthquakes near Dawson County
Glasscock County, TX 59 km (37 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Andrews County, TX 67 km (42 mi) E of here earthquakes near Andrews County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 11 km W of Forsan, Texas
  2. 2.0 6 km ESE of Big Spring, Texas
  3. 2.0 19 km SW of Ackerly, Texas
  4. 2.0 20 km W of Garden City, Texas
  5. 1.7 6 km ESE of Big Spring, Texas
  6. 1.6 17 km W of Stanton, Texas
  7. 1.8 25 km W of Garden City, Texas
  8. 1.6 7 km SE of Big Spring, Texas
  9. 1.7 25 km W of Garden City, Texas
  10. 2.5 25 km W of Garden City, Texas
  11. 1.9 19 km N of Stanton, Texas
  12. 1.6 20 km NNW of Stanton, Texas
  13. 2.8 20 km NNW of Midland, Texas
  14. 1.9 10 km WSW of Stanton, Texas
  15. 1.6 20 km W of Garden City, 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.