QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.6mb_lg

5 km E of Palco, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 240 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Rooks County 18 kmGraham County 35 kmEllis County 41 kmTrego County 49 kmPhillips County 61 kmOsborne County 64 kmNorton County 68 kmRussell County 73 kmSheridan County 82 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 2.6 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Rooks County, 18 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 537 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 2 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 240 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 240 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 39.2528, -99.4996. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Rooks County, KS 18 km (11 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Rooks County
Graham County, KS 35 km (22 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Graham County
Ellis County, KS 41 km (25 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ellis County
Trego County, KS 49 km (30 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Trego County
Phillips County, KS 61 km (38 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Phillips County
Osborne County, KS 64 km (40 mi) W of here earthquakes near Osborne County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 9 km SW of Natoma, Kansas
  2. 2.4 12 km NE of Damar, Kansas
  3. 2.9 7 km N of Hays, Kansas
  4. 2.8 10 km SSW of Stockton, Kansas
  5. 2.8 8 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  6. 3.3 7 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  7. 2.5 1 km NE of Zurich, Kansas
  8. 2.5 11 km NNE of Stockton, Kansas
  9. 2.6 14 km WSW of Natoma, Kansas
  10. 2.5 3 km NE of Bogue, Kansas
  11. 2.8 16 km S of Hill City, Kansas
  12. 3.0 2 km SW of Zurich, Kansas
  13. 2.7 2 km E of Hill City, Kansas
  14. 2.6 6 km SE of Hill City, Kansas
  15. 2.7 11 km NW of Stockton, 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 4.6 on 2019-06-22 — it released about 1,000 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.