QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 4.0mwr

4 km NW of Bennington, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 15 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ottawa County 9 kmSaline County 29 kmDickinson County 46 kmCloud County 48 kmLincoln County 50 kmClay County 52 kmMitchell County 62 kmEllsworth County 63 kmMcPherson County 73 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 4.0 (mwr)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
258 reports · strongest reported intensity VI
Measured shaking
intensity V (ShakeMap)
USGS impact alert
green
Nearest
Ottawa County, 9 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 987 days ago

This was a light earthquake. It is usually felt clearly nearby and can rattle windows and dishes, but damage is uncommon. 258 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 15 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 5.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 11,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 500× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 350× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 4.0 about 15 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 32× 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 39.0549, -97.6350. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ottawa County, KS 9 km (6 mi) S of here earthquakes near Ottawa County
Saline County, KS 29 km (18 mi) N of here earthquakes near Saline County
Dickinson County, KS 46 km (29 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Dickinson County
Cloud County, KS 48 km (30 mi) S of here earthquakes near Cloud County
Lincoln County, KS 50 km (31 mi) E of here earthquakes near Lincoln County
Clay County, KS 52 km (32 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Clay County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.9 5 km SSW of Assaria, Kansas
  2. 3.5 6 km E of Assaria, Kansas
  3. 3.7 10 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  4. 2.6 9 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  5. 2.9 7 km WSW of Gypsum, Kansas
  6. 3.3 5 km E of Assaria, Kansas
  7. 3.3 7 km ENE of Assaria, Kansas
  8. 2.7 3 km E of Assaria, Kansas
  9. 3.4 6 km ENE of Assaria, Kansas
  10. 2.6 7 km SW of Gypsum, Kansas
  11. 2.7 2 km SW of Assaria, Kansas
  12. 2.4 3 km ENE of Assaria, Kansas
  13. 2.7 4 km WSW of Assaria, Kansas
  14. 2.6 0 km SSW of Assaria, Kansas
  15. 2.5 3 km NNW of Assaria, 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 4.3 on 2021-12-08 — it released about 2.8 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.