QuakeIndex

mining explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

9 km NNW of Mountain Iron, Minnesota

· 0.0 km deep · released about 1,300 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N St. Louis County 12 kmItasca County 72 kmLake County 95 kmKoochiching County 109 kmCarlton County 112 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
St. Louis County, 12 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2052 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 1,300 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,300 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.4× 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 47.6128, -92.6682. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
St. Louis County, MN 12 km (8 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near St. Louis County
Itasca County, MN 72 km (45 mi) E of here earthquakes near Itasca County
Lake County, MN 95 km (59 mi) W of here earthquakes near Lake County
Koochiching County, MN 109 km (68 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Koochiching County
Carlton County, MN 112 km (70 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carlton County
Aitkin County, MN 126 km (78 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. 3.0 2 km NNW of Mountain Iron, Minnesota
  2. 3.0 5 km NNE of Virginia, Minnesota
  3. 2.9 5 km N of Parkville, Minnesota
  4. 3.0 0 km ENE of Parkville, Minnesota
  5. 3.0 4 km NE of Kinney, Minnesota
  6. 2.8 5 km NNE of Parkville, Minnesota
  7. 3.1 1 km NE of Eveleth, Minnesota
  8. 3.0 3 km W of Mountain Iron, Minnesota
  9. 3.0 5 km NNE of Mountain Iron, Minnesota
  10. 3.0 6 km NNE of Kinney, Minnesota
  11. 3.2 1 km NE of Virginia, Minnesota
  12. 3.1 3 km NE of Parkville, Minnesota
  13. 3.0 3 km N of Chisholm, Minnesota
  14. 3.1 5 km NW of Hibbing, Minnesota
  15. 2.9 6 km NNE of Virginia, 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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