mining explosion · reviewed by a seismologist
M 2.9ml
3 km WSW of Peña Blanca, New Mexico
- When
- Magnitude
- M 2.9 (ml)
- Depth
- 0.0 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Los Alamos County, 35 km N
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 475 days ago
This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.
USGS catalogues this as mining explosion, not an earthquake.
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.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 22,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.4× the energy of this one
- 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 35.5574, -106.3668. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Alamos County, NM | 35 km (22 mi) | S of here | earthquakes near Los Alamos County |
| Santa Fe County, NM | 37 km (23 mi) | W of here | earthquakes near Santa Fe County |
| Sandoval County, NM | 49 km (30 mi) | ESE of here | earthquakes near Sandoval County |
| Bernalillo County, NM | 62 km (39 mi) | NNE of here | earthquakes near Bernalillo County |
| Valencia County, NM | 102 km (63 mi) | NNE of here | earthquakes near Valencia County |
| Rio Arriba County, NM | 110 km (68 mi) | SSE of here | earthquakes near Rio Arriba 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
- The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
- Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
- ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one
QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.