QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

10 km N of Caldwell, Kansas

· 3.8 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sumner County 16 kmHarper County 41 kmGrant County 41 kmKay County 54 kmSedgwick County 63 kmKingman County 67 kmCowley County 70 kmAlfalfa County 77 kmGarfield County 85 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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
3.8 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity II
Nearest
Sumner County, 16 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 3266 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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 37.1275, -97.6157. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sumner County, KS 16 km (10 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Harper County, KS 41 km (25 mi) E of here earthquakes near Harper County
Grant County, OK 41 km (25 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Grant County
Kay County, OK 54 km (34 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Kay County
Sedgwick County, KS 63 km (39 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Sedgwick County
Kingman County, KS 67 km (41 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Kingman County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 8 km SSE of Mayfield, Kansas
  2. 2.0 4 km NE of Mayfield, Kansas
  3. 2.1 8 km SSE of Mayfield, Kansas
  4. 1.6 8 km SSE of Mayfield, Kansas
  5. 1.9 11 km N of Caldwell, Kansas
  6. 1.6 5 km WSW of Danville, Kansas
  7. 2.0 4 km NE of Mayfield, Kansas
  8. 1.6 4 km NE of Mayfield, Kansas
  9. 2.9 2 km WSW of Mayfield, Kansas
  10. 1.7 6 km SE of Bluff City, Kansas
  11. 2.3 1 km WSW of Mayfield, Kansas
  12. 1.8 5 km ESE of Harper, Kansas
  13. 2.4 1 km WSW of Mayfield, Kansas
  14. 2.5 5 km ENE of Milan, Kansas
  15. 2.1 10 km SSW of Bluff City, 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 4.1 on 2017-03-29 — it released about 63 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.