QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

5 km NNW of El Moro, Colorado

· 5.0 km deep · released about 7.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Las Animas County 39 kmHuerfano County 62 kmColfax County 75 kmCostilla County 84 kmOtero County 95 kmPueblo County 99 kmAlamosa County 120 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Las Animas County, 39 km E
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 7.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.6 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 37.2730, -104.4821. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Las Animas County, CO 39 km (24 mi) W of here earthquakes near Las Animas County
Huerfano County, CO 62 km (39 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Huerfano County
Colfax County, NM 75 km (46 mi) N of here earthquakes near Colfax County
Costilla County, CO 84 km (52 mi) E of here earthquakes near Costilla County
Otero County, CO 95 km (59 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Otero County
Pueblo County, CO 99 km (61 mi) S of here earthquakes near Pueblo County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 10 km SW of Walsenburg, Colorado
  2. 2.4 10 km SW of Walsenburg, Colorado
  3. 2.7 8 km SW of Walsenburg, Colorado
  4. 1.8 11 km S of Weston, Colorado
  5. 1.5 9 km SE of Starkville, Colorado
  6. 1.5 7 km SSW of Weston, Colorado
  7. 2.4 14 km SW of Weston, Colorado
  8. 1.5 13 km SW of Weston, Colorado
  9. 1.8 14 km SW of Weston, Colorado
  10. 2.9 5 km SSW of Walsenburg, Colorado
  11. 2.3 7 km SW of Walsenburg, Colorado
  12. 2.3 5 km SSW of Walsenburg, Colorado
  13. 1.7 17 km S of Weston, Colorado
  14. 3.2 15 km SSW of Weston, Colorado
  15. 1.5 19 km S of Weston, Colorado

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 2023-03-10 — it released about 11,000 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.