QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

12 km SW of Jal, New Mexico

· 6.0 km deep · released about 2.7 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Winkler County 31 kmLoving County 33 kmWard County 60 kmAndrews County 68 kmEctor County 72 kmLea County 86 kmReeves County 90 kmGaines County 100 kmCrane County 101 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
6.0 km below the surface
Felt
3 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Winkler County, 31 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 99 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 3 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.6× 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 32.0300, -103.2820. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Winkler County, TX 31 km (19 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Winkler County
Loving County, TX 33 km (21 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Loving County
Ward County, TX 60 km (37 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ward County
Andrews County, TX 68 km (42 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Andrews County
Ector County, TX 72 km (45 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Ector County
Lea County, NM 86 km (53 mi) S of here earthquakes near Lea County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 28 km NE of Mentone, Texas
  2. 1.5 25 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  3. 2.1 24 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  4. 2.5 35 km SE of Malaga, New Mexico
  5. 1.9 37 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  6. 2.0 37 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  7. 2.8 18 km NNW of Jal, New Mexico
  8. 2.5 18 km NNW of Jal, New Mexico
  9. 1.8 20 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  10. 1.6 19 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  11. 1.9 19 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  12. 1.6 20 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  13. 1.7 20 km SW of Jal, New Mexico
  14. 2.5 37 km ESE of Malaga, New Mexico
  15. 2.4 12 km SSW 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 5.6 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.