QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.6ml

7 km W of Fairburn, South Dakota

· 5.0 km deep · released about 3.8 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Custer County 13 kmPennington County 53 kmFall River County 53 kmOglala Lakota County 71 kmLawrence County 85 kmWeston County 104 kmDawes County 108 kmMeade County 113 kmNiobrara County 117 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 3.6 (ml)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
7 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity IV (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Custer County, 13 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 499 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 7 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 3.8 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.6 about 3.8 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 7.9× 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 43.6761, -103.3000. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Custer County, SD 13 km (8 mi) E of here earthquakes near Custer County
Pennington County, SD 53 km (33 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Pennington County
Fall River County, SD 53 km (33 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Fall River County
Oglala Lakota County, SD 71 km (44 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Oglala Lakota County
Lawrence County, SD 85 km (53 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Lawrence County
Weston County, WY 104 km (64 mi) E of here earthquakes near Weston County

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

Aftershocks so far

No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

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.