QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

28 km N of Sterling City, Texas

· 4.0 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mitchell County 24 kmSterling County 29 kmCoke County 42 kmHoward County 48 kmGlasscock County 55 kmNolan County 60 kmScurry County 73 kmBorden County 83 kmIrion County 88 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
4.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Mitchell County, 24 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 132 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 32.0940, -100.9980. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mitchell County, TX 24 km (15 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Mitchell County
Sterling County, TX 29 km (18 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sterling County
Coke County, TX 42 km (26 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Coke County
Howard County, TX 48 km (30 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Howard County
Glasscock County, TX 55 km (34 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Nolan County, TX 60 km (37 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Nolan County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 15 km NNW of Westbrook, Texas
  2. 1.8 23 km SSW of Westbrook, Texas
  3. 1.5 9 km WSW of Westbrook, Texas
  4. 2.1 9 km SE of Big Spring, Texas
  5. 2.1 10 km W of Forsan, Texas
  6. 1.6 10 km W of Forsan, Texas
  7. 1.9 10 km SSW of Big Spring, Texas
  8. 2.1 14 km SW of Westbrook, Texas
  9. 1.8 25 km E of Forsan, Texas
  10. 1.6 22 km NW of Westbrook, Texas
  11. 2.2 9 km SSW of Big Spring, Texas
  12. 3.9 23 km NW of Westbrook, Texas
  13. 1.5 6 km WNW of Westbrook, Texas
  14. 2.9 6 km WSW of Westbrook, Texas
  15. 1.5 17 km SSE of Westbrook, 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 4.3 on 2025-10-12 — it released about 11,000 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.