QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.4mb_lg

16 km SSE of Plainville, Kansas

· 3.5 km deep · released about 120 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ellis County 23 kmRooks County 29 kmRussell County 43 kmOsborne County 47 kmTrego County 61 kmGraham County 65 kmRush County 65 kmPhillips County 77 kmBarton County 79 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 2.4 (mb_lg)
Depth
3.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Ellis County, 23 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1421 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 120 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 89,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 7.9× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.4 about 120 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 39.1012, -99.2041. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ellis County, KS 23 km (14 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Ellis County
Rooks County, KS 29 km (18 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Rooks County
Russell County, KS 43 km (27 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Russell County
Osborne County, KS 47 km (29 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Osborne County
Trego County, KS 61 km (38 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Trego County
Graham County, KS 65 km (40 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Graham County

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

Aftershocks so far

21 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. 2.8 10 km SSW of Stockton, Kansas
  5. 2.8 8 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  6. 3.3 7 km NNW of Stockton, Kansas
  7. 2.5 1 km NE of Zurich, Kansas
  8. 2.5 11 km NNE of Stockton, Kansas
  9. 2.6 14 km WSW of Natoma, Kansas
  10. 3.0 4 km SE of Paradise, Kansas
  11. 3.0 2 km SW of Zurich, Kansas
  12. 2.7 11 km NW of Stockton, Kansas
  13. 2.4 8 km SSW of Bogue, Kansas
  14. 3.4 10 km NW of Woodston, Kansas
  15. 3.0 6 km SW of Luray, 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 2,000 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.