QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.4mb_lg

1 km N of Zurich, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 1.9 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Rooks County 14 kmEllis County 39 kmGraham County 40 kmTrego County 52 kmOsborne County 58 kmPhillips County 60 kmRussell County 68 kmNorton County 72 kmRush County 81 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 3.4 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
21 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Rooks County, 14 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2459 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 21 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 89,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.9 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4× 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 39.2492, -99.4352. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Rooks County, KS 14 km (9 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Rooks County
Ellis County, KS 39 km (24 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Ellis County
Graham County, KS 40 km (25 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Graham County
Trego County, KS 52 km (32 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Trego County
Osborne County, KS 58 km (36 mi) W of here earthquakes near Osborne County
Phillips County, KS 60 km (37 mi) S of here earthquakes near Phillips County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 9 km SW of Natoma, Kansas
  2. 2.4 12 km NE of Damar, Kansas
  3. 2.9 7 km N of Hays, Kansas
  4. 2.9 5 km SW of Kirwin, Kansas
  5. 2.8 10 km SSW of Stockton, Kansas
  6. 2.8 8 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  7. 3.3 7 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  8. 2.5 1 km NE of Zurich, Kansas
  9. 2.5 11 km NNE of Stockton, Kansas
  10. 2.6 14 km WSW of Natoma, Kansas
  11. 2.5 3 km NE of Bogue, Kansas
  12. 2.8 16 km S of Hill City, Kansas
  13. 3.0 2 km SW of Zurich, Kansas
  14. 2.7 2 km E of Hill City, Kansas
  15. 2.6 6 km SE of Hill City, 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 4.6 on 2019-06-22 — it released about 63 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.