QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.5mb_lg

4 km W of Bennington, Kansas

· 5.0 km deep · released about 170 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Ottawa County 11 kmSaline County 27 kmDickinson County 47 kmLincoln County 49 kmCloud County 50 kmClay County 54 kmEllsworth County 61 kmMitchell County 62 kmMcPherson County 71 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 2.5 (mb_lg)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
43 reports · strongest reported intensity IV
Nearest
Ottawa County, 11 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 910 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 43 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 170 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 89,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 5.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.5 about 170 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 39.0379, -97.6495. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Ottawa County, KS 11 km (7 mi) S of here earthquakes near Ottawa County
Saline County, KS 27 km (17 mi) N of here earthquakes near Saline County
Dickinson County, KS 47 km (29 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Dickinson County
Lincoln County, KS 49 km (30 mi) E of here earthquakes near Lincoln County
Cloud County, KS 50 km (31 mi) S of here earthquakes near Cloud County
Clay County, KS 54 km (33 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

20 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 500 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.