QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.5mb_lg

4 km E of Riverside, Maryland

· 8.5 km deep · released about 170 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Howard County 11 kmBaltimore city 23 kmAnne Arundel County 32 kmMontgomery County 32 kmDistrict of Columbia 35 kmBaltimore County 35 kmPrince George's County 39 kmArlington County 41 kmFalls Church city 44 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 2.5 (mb_lg)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
1228 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Howard County, 11 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 254 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 1228 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 170 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 89,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 5.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 170 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 39.1805, -76.8331. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Howard County, MD 11 km (7 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Howard County
Baltimore city, MD 23 km (14 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Baltimore city
Anne Arundel County, MD 32 km (20 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Anne Arundel County
Montgomery County, MD 32 km (20 mi) E of here earthquakes near Montgomery County
District of Columbia, DC 35 km (21 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near District of Columbia
Baltimore County, MD 35 km (22 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Baltimore 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.