QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.8mb_lg

16 km S of Hill City, Kansas

· 9.5 km deep · released about 480 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Graham County 16 kmTrego County 33 kmRooks County 45 kmEllis County 55 kmSheridan County 55 kmNorton County 64 kmGove County 66 kmPhillips County 75 kmNess 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 2.8 (mb_lg)
Depth
9.5 km below the surface
Felt
9 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Graham County, 16 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 350 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 9 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 480 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 32,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 22,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 2× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.8 about 480 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 39.2158, -99.8210. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Graham County, KS 16 km (10 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Graham County
Trego County, KS 33 km (20 mi) N of here earthquakes near Trego County
Rooks County, KS 45 km (28 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Rooks County
Ellis County, KS 55 km (34 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Ellis County
Sheridan County, KS 55 km (34 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Sheridan County
Norton County, KS 64 km (39 mi) S of here earthquakes near Norton County

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

Aftershocks so far

4 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. 2.5 1 km NE of Zurich, Kansas
  4. 2.5 3 km NE of Bogue, 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 500 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.