QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.3mb_lg

6 km N of Bennington, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 1.3 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ottawa County 8 kmSaline County 34 kmCloud County 44 kmDickinson County 44 kmClay County 45 kmLincoln County 55 kmMitchell County 63 kmEllsworth County 69 kmGeary County 71 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 3.3 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
48 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Ottawa County, 8 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1058 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 48 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5,600× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.8× 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 39.0927, -97.5826. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ottawa County, KS 8 km (5 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Ottawa County
Saline County, KS 34 km (21 mi) N of here earthquakes near Saline County
Cloud County, KS 44 km (27 mi) S of here earthquakes near Cloud County
Dickinson County, KS 44 km (28 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Dickinson County
Clay County, KS 45 km (28 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Clay County
Lincoln County, KS 55 km (34 mi) E of here earthquakes near Lincoln County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.5 6 km E of Assaria, Kansas
  2. 2.9 7 km WSW of Gypsum, Kansas
  3. 3.3 5 km E of Assaria, Kansas
  4. 3.3 7 km ENE of Assaria, Kansas
  5. 2.7 3 km E of Assaria, Kansas
  6. 3.4 6 km ENE of Assaria, Kansas
  7. 2.6 7 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  8. 2.7 2 km SW of Assaria, Kansas
  9. 2.4 3 km ENE of Assaria, Kansas
  10. 2.7 4 km WSW of Assaria, Kansas
  11. 2.6 0 km SSW of Assaria, Kansas
  12. 2.5 3 km NNW of Assaria, Kansas
  13. 2.4 0 km N of Assaria, Kansas
  14. 2.5 4 km SSE of Smolan, Kansas
  15. 2.2 5 km N of Assaria, 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 4.0 on 2021-12-15 — it released about 11 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.