QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9mb_lg

3 km SSE of Hill City, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 680 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Graham County 6 kmRooks County 43 kmTrego County 46 kmNorton County 50 kmSheridan County 54 kmEllis County 64 kmPhillips County 65 kmGove County 74 kmDecatur County 74 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 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
29 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Graham County, 6 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 406 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 29 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

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 39.3354, -99.8192. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Graham County, KS 6 km (4 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Graham County
Rooks County, KS 43 km (26 mi) W of here earthquakes near Rooks County
Trego County, KS 46 km (29 mi) N of here earthquakes near Trego County
Norton County, KS 50 km (31 mi) S of here earthquakes near Norton County
Sheridan County, KS 54 km (33 mi) E of here earthquakes near Sheridan County
Ellis County, KS 64 km (40 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Ellis County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 12 km NE of Damar, Kansas
  2. 2.8 10 km SSW of Stockton, Kansas
  3. 2.8 8 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  4. 3.3 7 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  5. 2.5 1 km NE of Zurich, Kansas
  6. 2.5 3 km NE of Bogue, Kansas
  7. 2.8 16 km S of Hill City, Kansas
  8. 3.0 2 km SW of Zurich, Kansas
  9. 2.7 2 km E of Hill City, Kansas
  10. 2.6 6 km SE of Hill City, Kansas
  11. 2.7 11 km NW of Stockton, Kansas
  12. 2.1 9 km SW of Bogue, Kansas
  13. 2.7 17 km NNE of Collyer, Kansas
  14. 2.5 7 km S of Hill City, Kansas
  15. 2.4 11 km SSE of Hill City, 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 350 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.