QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

6 km SW of Sand Springs, Texas

· 8.6 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Howard County 9 kmGlasscock County 43 kmMitchell County 44 kmMartin County 55 kmSterling County 55 kmBorden County 56 kmScurry County 72 kmMidland County 75 kmDawson County 77 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
8.6 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Howard County, 9 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 262 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 32.2370, -101.3880. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Howard County, TX 9 km (5 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Howard County
Glasscock County, TX 43 km (27 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Mitchell County, TX 44 km (27 mi) W of here earthquakes near Mitchell County
Martin County, TX 55 km (34 mi) E of here earthquakes near Martin County
Sterling County, TX 55 km (34 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Sterling County
Borden County, TX 56 km (35 mi) S of here earthquakes near Borden County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 7 km SE of Big Spring, Texas
  2. 1.9 19 km N of Stanton, Texas
  3. 1.6 20 km NNW of Stanton, Texas
  4. 1.6 28 km S of Westbrook, Texas
  5. 1.9 10 km WSW of Stanton, Texas
  6. 1.6 20 km W of Garden City, Texas
  7. 1.5 2 km WNW of Garden City, Texas
  8. 1.5 13 km W of Forsan, Texas
  9. 1.8 1 km NNE of Garden City, Texas
  10. 2.5 13 km N of Stanton, Texas
  11. 2.3 11 km S of Forsan, Texas
  12. 1.5 2 km WNW of Garden City, Texas
  13. 1.7 1 km NW of Garden City, Texas
  14. 1.7 23 km SW of Snyder, Texas
  15. 2.9 11 km S of Forsan, 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 22,000 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.