QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6ml

4 km NNW of Coaldale, Colorado

· 5.0 km deep · released about 3.8 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Fremont County 31 kmCuster County 49 kmSaguache County 57 kmChaffee County 58 kmTeller County 73 kmPark County 80 kmAlamosa County 93 kmLake County 102 kmHuerfano County 107 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 3.6 (ml)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
61 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Fremont County, 31 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2939 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 61 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.9× 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 38.4051, -105.7807. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Fremont County, CO 31 km (20 mi) W of here earthquakes near Fremont County
Custer County, CO 49 km (30 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Custer County
Saguache County, CO 57 km (36 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Saguache County
Chaffee County, CO 58 km (36 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Chaffee County
Teller County, CO 73 km (45 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Teller County
Park County, CO 80 km (49 mi) S of here earthquakes near Park County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 17 km NE of Saguache, Colorado
  2. 1.5 9 km SSW of Garfield, Colorado
  3. 2.5 19 km WNW of Cañon City, Colorado
  4. 1.5 2 km SE of Maysville, Colorado
  5. 1.5 9 km N of Cotopaxi, Colorado
  6. 1.5 2 km SSE of Cotopaxi, Colorado
  7. 2.3 3 km SW of Cotopaxi, Colorado
  8. 1.5 2 km S of Coaldale, Colorado
  9. 1.9 16 km S of Cotopaxi, Colorado

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.