QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

26 km N of Sterling City, Texas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Mitchell County 27 kmSterling County 27 kmCoke County 43 kmHoward County 47 kmGlasscock County 53 kmNolan County 62 kmScurry County 75 kmBorden County 83 kmIrion County 86 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
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Mitchell County, 27 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 89 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 32.0770, -101.0200. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Mitchell County, TX 27 km (17 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Mitchell County
Sterling County, TX 27 km (17 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sterling County
Coke County, TX 43 km (26 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Coke County
Howard County, TX 47 km (29 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Howard County
Glasscock County, TX 53 km (33 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Glasscock County
Nolan County, TX 62 km (39 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

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

  1. 1.5 11 km S of Forsan, Texas
  2. 1.6 25 km SSW of Westbrook, Texas
  3. 2.0 17 km SE of Forsan, Texas
  4. 1.7 19 km NW of Westbrook, Texas
  5. 1.5 12 km W of Forsan, Texas
  6. 1.5 14 km SW of Westbrook, Texas
  7. 1.5 19 km NW of Westbrook, Texas
  8. 1.5 11 km S of Forsan, Texas
  9. 1.8 10 km S of Forsan, Texas
  10. 1.5 22 km S of Westbrook, Texas
  11. 1.5 6 km ESE of Big Spring, Texas
  12. 1.5 7 km NNE of Westbrook, Texas
  13. 2.2 12 km W of Forsan, Texas
  14. 1.7 23 km S of Westbrook, Texas
  15. 2.0 24 km SSW 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.