QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

3 km ESE of Capulin, New Mexico

· 13 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Rio Arriba County 33 kmLos Alamos County 57 kmSandoval County 60 kmSanta Fe County 107 kmTaos County 108 kmArchuleta County 112 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 2.9 (ml)
Depth
13 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Rio Arriba County, 33 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 997 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 680 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 680 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 36.2202, -106.7653. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Rio Arriba County, NM 33 km (20 mi) S of here earthquakes near Rio Arriba County
Los Alamos County, NM 57 km (35 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Los Alamos County
Sandoval County, NM 60 km (38 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sandoval County
Santa Fe County, NM 107 km (66 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Santa Fe County
Taos County, NM 108 km (67 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Taos County
Archuleta County, CO 112 km (70 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Archuleta County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 26 km WSW of Los Ojos, New Mexico
  2. 2.6 26 km WSW of Los Ojos, New Mexico
  3. 3.3 13 km NNW of La Cueva, New Mexico
  4. 3.6 22 km WSW of Los Ojos, New Mexico
  5. 2.9 11 km NNE of Gallina, New Mexico
  6. 2.9 28 km NNW of Regina, New Mexico
  7. 2.9 7 km ENE of Capulin, New Mexico
  8. 2.8 7 km ESE of Cuba, New Mexico
  9. 3.5 9 km E of Cuba, New Mexico
  10. 2.5 10 km E of Cuba, New Mexico

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 4.2 on 2021-07-12 — it released about 89 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.