QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.4mb_lg

4 km ENE of Cowles, Nebraska

· 5.0 km deep · released about 120 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Webster County 9 kmNuckolls County 30 kmAdams County 39 kmJewell County 47 kmClay County 48 kmFranklin County 48 kmSmith County 55 kmKearney County 59 kmThayer County 68 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 2.4 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Webster County, 9 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 124 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 120 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 89,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 7.9× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.4 about 120 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 40.1822, -98.3966. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Webster County, NE 9 km (5 mi) E of here earthquakes near Webster County
Nuckolls County, NE 30 km (18 mi) W of here earthquakes near Nuckolls County
Adams County, NE 39 km (24 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Adams County
Jewell County, KS 47 km (29 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Jewell County
Clay County, NE 48 km (30 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Clay County
Franklin County, NE 48 km (30 mi) E of here earthquakes near Franklin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 7 km E of Cowles, Nebraska
  2. 2.8 4 km ESE of Cowles, Nebraska
  3. 2.5 6 km ESE of Cowles, Nebraska

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 4.1 on 2026-03-01 — 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.