Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 3.1ml
55 km SSW of Whites City, New Mexico
- When
- Magnitude
- M 3.1 (ml)
- Depth
- 4.7 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Culberson County, 28 km S
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2 hours ago
This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.
How big was it?
This earthquake released about 1,300 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 250,000× the energy of this one
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,900× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,300 lb of TNT
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.4× 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.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 5.4 on 2025-05-04 — about 2,800 times the energy of this one.
Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.
Where
Epicentre 31.6970, -104.5490. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Culberson County, TX | 28 km (17 mi) | S | earthquakes near Culberson County |
| Hudspeth County, TX | 83 km (52 mi) | WSW | earthquakes near Hudspeth County |
| Eddy County, NM | 88 km (54 mi) | NNE | earthquakes near Eddy County |
| Reeves County, TX | 90 km (56 mi) | ESE | earthquakes near Reeves County |
| Loving County, TX | 95 km (59 mi) | E | earthquakes near Loving County |
| Jeff Davis County, TX | 124 km (77 mi) | SSE | earthquakes near Jeff Davis County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.
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.
Revisions
USGS refines a solution as more stations report. Every change we have seen is listed here.
| What changed | From | To | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| longitude | -104.55 | -104.55 | |
| depth | 4.7 | 4.73 | |
| magnitude | 2.9 | 3.1 |
On USGS
- The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
- Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
- ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one
QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.