QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

Earthquake near Madison, OH

USGS: 5 km SE of Madison, Ohio

63 km (39 mi) ENE of Cleveland, OH

5:20 am EDT, Sep 29, 2023 · · 5.0 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

Every earthquake near Madison Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lake County 17 kmAshtabula County 29 kmGeauga County 30 kmTrumbull County 51 kmCuyahoga County 54 kmPortage County 65 kmCrawford County 74 kmMercer County 79 kmSummit County 81 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
5:20 am EDT on 29 September 2023 ()
Where
6 km (4 mi) SE of Madison, OH · earthquakes near Madison
Magnitude
M 1.8 (ml)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lake County, 17 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1028 days ago

A magnitude 1.8 earthquake was recorded 6 km (4 mi) SE of Madison, OH, at 5:20 am EDT on 29 September 2023 (09:20 UTC). This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: North Madison, Perry, Geneva-on-the-Lake, Roaming Shores, Chardon, Jefferson.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.0 on 2019-06-10 — about 2,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists one earthquake of M5 or more within 50 km:

  1. 5.0 4 km NNW of Chardon, Ohio · 16 km SW of this epicentre

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 41.7322, -81.0015. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection from the epicentre
Lake County, OH 17 km (11 mi) WNW earthquakes near Lake County
Ashtabula County, OH 29 km (18 mi) NE earthquakes near Ashtabula County
Geauga County, OH 30 km (18 mi) SSW earthquakes near Geauga County
Trumbull County, OH 51 km (32 mi) SSE earthquakes near Trumbull County
Cuyahoga County, OH 54 km (33 mi) WSW earthquakes near Cuyahoga County
Portage County, OH 65 km (40 mi) SSW earthquakes near Portage County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 1 km W of North Perry, Ohio
  2. 2.0 3 km SE of Madison, Ohio
  3. 2.2 5 km W of Rock Creek, Ohio
  4. 2.1 2 km SE of Madison, Ohio
  5. 2.2 6 km SE of Madison, Ohio
  6. 2.3 4 km SE of Madison, Ohio
  7. 2.9 3 km SW of Madison, Ohio
  8. 2.2 3 km SSE of Madison, Ohio
  9. 2.7 4 km ENE of North Madison, Ohio
  10. 2.3 2 km SSE of Madison, Ohio
  11. 2.5 4 km ESE of Madison, Ohio
  12. 2.0 2 km ESE of Madison, Ohio
  13. 1.8 5 km NW of Lakeline, Ohio
  14. 2.2 2 km ESE of Madison, Ohio
  15. 1.7 1 km ESE of Madison, Ohio

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.