QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.3mb_lg

5 km E of Assaria, Kansas

· 9.9 km deep · released about 1.3 tons of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Saline County 16 kmMcPherson County 32 kmDickinson County 39 kmMarion County 52 kmOttawa County 53 kmEllsworth County 58 kmRice County 68 kmHarvey County 70 kmLincoln County 72 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 3.3 (mb_lg)
Depth
9.9 km below the surface
Felt
22 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Saline County, 16 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 344 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 22 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5,600× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.8× 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 38.6742, -97.5380. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Saline County, KS 16 km (10 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Saline County
McPherson County, KS 32 km (20 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near McPherson County
Dickinson County, KS 39 km (24 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Dickinson County
Marion County, KS 52 km (32 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Marion County
Ottawa County, KS 53 km (33 mi) S of here earthquakes near Ottawa County
Ellsworth County, KS 58 km (36 mi) E of here earthquakes near Ellsworth County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 5 km SSW of Assaria, Kansas
  2. 2.5 5 km SW of Hope, Kansas
  3. 3.5 6 km E of Assaria, Kansas
  4. 2.6 6 km NW of Ramona, Kansas
  5. 3.7 10 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  6. 2.7 7 km SE of Enterprise, Kansas
  7. 2.6 9 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  8. 2.9 7 km WSW of Gypsum, 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 4.3 on 2021-12-08 — it released about 32 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.