QuakeIndex

mining explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.6ml

4 km NNE of Virginia, Minnesota

· 0.0 km deep · released about 240 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N St. Louis County 1 kmItasca County 83 kmLake County 83 kmCarlton County 108 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 2.6 (ml)
Depth
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
St. Louis County, 1 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 478 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 240 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 240 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 47.5658, -92.5163. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
St. Louis County, MN 1 km (1 mi) S of here earthquakes near St. Louis County
Itasca County, MN 83 km (51 mi) E of here earthquakes near Itasca County
Lake County, MN 83 km (52 mi) W of here earthquakes near Lake County
Carlton County, MN 108 km (67 mi) N of here earthquakes near Carlton County
Koochiching County, MN 121 km (75 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Koochiching County
Aitkin County, MN 127 km (79 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

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

  1. 2.8 11 km NNE of Parkville, Minnesota
  2. 2.5 5 km NW of Biwabik, Minnesota
  3. 3.3 3 km SW of Babbitt, Minnesota
  4. 2.6 6 km NW of Mountain Iron, Minnesota
  5. 2.7 4 km NW of Leonidas, 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

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.