QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.2ml

9 km W of Bluff City, Kansas

· 7.5 km deep · released about 1,900 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Harper County 15 kmGrant County 36 kmSumner County 47 kmAlfalfa County 49 kmKingman County 55 kmBarber County 64 kmGarfield County 79 kmKay County 80 kmSedgwick County 82 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 3.2 (ml)
Depth
7.5 km below the surface
Felt
4 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Nearest
Harper County, 15 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3406 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 4 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,900 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 7,900× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 5,600× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.2 about 1,900 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2× 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 37.0730, -97.9830. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Harper County, KS 15 km (9 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Harper County
Grant County, OK 36 km (22 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Grant County
Sumner County, KS 47 km (29 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Alfalfa County, OK 49 km (30 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Alfalfa County
Kingman County, KS 55 km (34 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Kingman County
Barber County, KS 64 km (40 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Barber County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 3 km NNW of Freeport, Kansas
  2. 2.0 7 km ESE of Mayfield, Kansas
  3. 2.0 11 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  4. 2.0 3 km NNW of Freeport, Kansas
  5. 1.9 11 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  6. 1.8 11 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  7. 1.6 12 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  8. 1.6 11 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  9. 3.0 10 km SSE of Waldron, Kansas
  10. 2.8 10 km SSE of Waldron, Kansas
  11. 2.5 10 km SSE of Waldron, Kansas
  12. 1.9 2 km WSW of Anthony, Kansas
  13. 2.1 11 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  14. 2.7 12 km NNW of Caldwell, Kansas
  15. 2.4 2 km SW of Anthony, 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.0 on 2016-11-25 — it released about 16 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.