QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.8mb_lg

1 km NE of West Seneca, New York

· 5.7 km deep · released about 7.6 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Erie County 12 kmNiagara County 46 kmWyoming County 49 kmGenesee County 51 kmCattaraugus County 70 kmOrleans County 71 kmChautauqua County 80 kmLivingston County 83 kmAllegany County 92 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 3.8 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.7 km below the surface
Felt
7849 reports · strongest reported intensity V
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Erie County, 12 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 27 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 7849 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.6 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.8 about 7.6 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 16× 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 42.8605, -78.7853. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Erie County, NY 12 km (7 mi) N of here earthquakes near Erie County
Niagara County, NY 46 km (29 mi) S of here earthquakes near Niagara County
Wyoming County, NY 49 km (30 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Wyoming County
Genesee County, NY 51 km (32 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Genesee County
Cattaraugus County, NY 70 km (43 mi) N of here earthquakes near Cattaraugus County
Orleans County, NY 71 km (44 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Orleans County

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

Aftershocks so far

1 earthquake has been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 1.5 1 km SSW of Bowmansville, New York

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.