QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3mb_lg

3 km NE of Cheney, Kansas

· 4.3 km deep · released about 85 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sedgwick County 26 kmKingman County 36 kmReno County 44 kmSumner County 51 kmHarvey County 52 kmHarper County 58 kmButler County 81 kmMcPherson County 84 kmRice County 87 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 2.3 (mb_lg)
Depth
4.3 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sedgwick County, 26 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1800 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 85 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 180,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 130,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 11× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 85 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 37.6484, -97.7491. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sedgwick County, KS 26 km (16 mi) W of here earthquakes near Sedgwick County
Kingman County, KS 36 km (23 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kingman County
Reno County, KS 44 km (27 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Reno County
Sumner County, KS 51 km (32 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Sumner County
Harvey County, KS 52 km (33 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Harvey County
Harper County, KS 58 km (36 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Harper County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 1 km SE of Danville, Kansas
  2. 2.6 5 km WSW of Danville, Kansas
  3. 2.5 6 km SSE of Spivey, Kansas
  4. 2.4 9 km S of Spivey, Kansas
  5. 2.6 5 km S of Milton, Kansas
  6. 2.4 3 km WSW of Harper, Kansas
  7. 3.3 7 km SW of Danville, Kansas
  8. 2.1 4 km SSE of Cheney, Kansas
  9. 2.5 4 km SSE of Pretty Prairie, Kansas
  10. 2.3 6 km SW of Goddard, Kansas
  11. 2.3 4 km ENE of Eastborough, Kansas
  12. 3.2 9 km N of Norwich, Kansas
  13. 2.6 3 km ENE of Freeport, Kansas
  14. 2.4 Kansas
  15. 2.4 3 km W of Danville, 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 4.5 on 2020-01-19 — it released about 2,000 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.