QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4mb_lg

14 km NNW of Cawker City, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 1.9 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Jewell County 26 kmSmith County 31 kmMitchell County 36 kmOsborne County 42 kmWebster County 60 kmNuckolls County 69 kmLincoln County 70 kmRepublic County 73 kmCloud County 73 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 3.4 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
12 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Jewell County, 26 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3517 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 12 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 89,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.9 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 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.

Where

Epicentre 39.6432, -98.4685. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Jewell County, KS 26 km (16 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Jewell County
Smith County, KS 31 km (19 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Smith County
Mitchell County, KS 36 km (22 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Mitchell County
Osborne County, KS 42 km (26 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Osborne County
Webster County, NE 60 km (37 mi) S of here earthquakes near Webster County
Nuckolls County, NE 69 km (43 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Nuckolls County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.6 12 km NNW of Cawker City, Kansas
  2. 2.6 13 km NNE of Downs, Kansas
  3. 2.8 10 km NNW of Cawker City, Kansas
  4. 2.6 11 km SE of Esbon, Kansas
  5. 3.5 Kansas
  6. 2.5 11 km SSE of Esbon, Kansas
  7. 2.6 Kansas
  8. 3.3 11 km SSE of Esbon, Kansas
  9. 2.9 11 km SSE of Esbon, Kansas
  10. 2.5 7 km SSE of Esbon, Kansas
  11. 2.6 11 km NNW of Cawker City, Kansas
  12. 2.7 12 km SSE of Esbon, Kansas
  13. 3.1 2 km S of Formoso, Kansas
  14. 3.0 5 km SSW of Formoso, Kansas
  15. 3.6 5 km S of Formoso, Kansas

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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.