QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.5mb_lg

6 km ESE of Cowles, Nebraska

· 5.0 km deep · released about 170 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Webster County 11 kmNuckolls County 28 kmAdams County 43 kmJewell County 43 kmClay County 49 kmFranklin County 50 kmSmith County 54 kmKearney County 63 kmThayer County 66 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 2.5 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
2 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Webster County, 11 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

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

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 2 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 40.1515, -98.3694. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Webster County, NE 11 km (7 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Webster County
Nuckolls County, NE 28 km (17 mi) W of here earthquakes near Nuckolls County
Adams County, NE 43 km (26 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Adams County
Jewell County, KS 43 km (27 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Jewell County
Clay County, NE 49 km (31 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Clay County
Franklin County, NE 50 km (31 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

2 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

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 250 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.