QuakeIndex

mining explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.3ml

4 km NNW of Mountain Iron, Minnesota

· 0.0 km deep · released about 1.3 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N St. Louis County 10 kmItasca County 73 kmLake County 93 kmCarlton County 107 kmKoochiching County 113 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 3.3 (ml)
Depth
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
St. Louis County, 10 km E
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2280 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

USGS catalogues this as mining explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.3 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 5,600× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 4,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.3 about 1.3 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 2.8× 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 47.5685, -92.6444. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
St. Louis County, MN 10 km (6 mi) W of here earthquakes near St. Louis County
Itasca County, MN 73 km (45 mi) E of here earthquakes near Itasca County
Lake County, MN 93 km (58 mi) W of here earthquakes near Lake County
Carlton County, MN 107 km (67 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carlton County
Koochiching County, MN 113 km (70 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Koochiching County
Aitkin County, MN 122 km (76 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Aitkin County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.2 9 km N of Parkville, Minnesota
  2. 2.4 15 km SSW of Iron Junction, Minnesota
  3. 3.2 8 km NNE of Kinney, Minnesota
  4. 2.9 3 km WNW of Leonidas, Minnesota
  5. 3.2 1 km SE of Kinney, Minnesota
  6. 2.9 1 km ENE of Kinney, Minnesota
  7. 3.0 5 km NNE of Kinney, Minnesota
  8. 2.8 4 km NW of Hibbing, Minnesota
  9. 2.9 3 km E of Kinney, Minnesota
  10. 2.7 3 km S of Mountain Iron, Minnesota
  11. 3.0 1 km SW of Virginia, Minnesota
  12. 3.0 5 km NNE of Parkville, Minnesota
  13. 2.9 8 km NNE of Chisholm, Minnesota
  14. 3.0 12 km NNE of Chisholm, Minnesota
  15. 3.0 13 km N of Parkville, Minnesota

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

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