QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.0mb_lg

4 km ESE of Sykesville, Maryland

· 2.5 km deep · released about 30 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Howard County 12 kmCarroll County 25 kmBaltimore city 27 kmBaltimore County 27 kmMontgomery County 35 kmFrederick County 43 kmAnne Arundel County 51 kmDistrict of Columbia 51 kmArlington County 55 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 2.0 (mb_lg)
Depth
2.5 km below the surface
Felt
681 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Howard County, 12 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 38 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage. 681 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 30 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 32× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 30 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 39.3558, -76.9148. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Howard County, MD 12 km (7 mi) N of here earthquakes near Howard County
Carroll County, MD 25 km (15 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Carroll County
Baltimore city, MD 27 km (17 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Baltimore city
Baltimore County, MD 27 km (17 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Baltimore County
Montgomery County, MD 35 km (22 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Montgomery County
Frederick County, MD 43 km (27 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Frederick County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 4 km E of Riverside, Maryland
  2. 1.8 1 km NE of Spencerville, Maryland
  3. 2.3 0 km WSW of Rockville, Maryland

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.